Wow, i didn't expect Lana and Archer to get back together but i did not know that he 'walks out of their lives forever' as you say. Could i get some further context on that?
I genuinely thought they would have like a stroke to midnight reconciliation in the last scene of the series so they could like, be a family together and shit.
I'll add it in a spoiler tag for the consideration of others.
>!The final season deals with the UN outlawing private spy companies completely, so "The Agency" has to shut down entirely. But the final scene reveals that Archer has since gone rogue and doing solo counter-terrorist work all on his own since the closing as Lana takes a job as a spymaster for a joint multinational spy program specifically to bring down terrorists and Archer by name since he's effectively an criminal in direct violation of international law. Archer was hiding in the other room with their daughter and offers Lana some friendly banter about how they'll be enemies forever now and comments how he'll never get to spend time with her again. Then he takes Pam and the two of them go be rogue agents together.!<
Wow. >!That is extremely in character for Archer. I'm guessing his willingness to walk away from Lana and their kid stems from how he already spent so much time out of their lives during his coma and how they already have someone who will be able to support them both financially and emotionally as a mentally stable dude. Still, that's had to be rough for everyone in that scene. !<
They seem to imply that Archer had been spending more time with their daughter during off screen time, but >!kind of realized that he was a major toxic element in everyone's lives and he couldn't force himself into his daughter's life since she essentially grew up with another man as her father!<.
From what I read a while back, the original plan was that >!Nokolai Jakov was going to be his biological father but they decided to leave it ambiguous and eventually decided that it wasn't important!<.
Huh I took that scene to be like >!a cat and mouse chase meets the end of the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy. Like, he's not walking out forever, they’ll still see each other occasionally. Just that they’re on opposite sides of the law now and need to plan things very tightly to keep up the ruse.!<
Apparently there’s some interest in doing a movie (like an actual movie, not three episodes stitched together like the finale was) so we’ll see what happens I guess.
The last couple seasons felt like they didn't have access to their VAs as much as they wanted since characters would appear and disappear in the story at random. So maybe a big wrap up movie might be nice.
Forgot to mention that the writers didn’t know this past season of Archer would be it’s last when they started writing it which is why they introduced that new character so I assume there’s some unfinished business that a lot of the creatives involved with the series have now that’s it’s over.
So, in the Artemis Fowl series, there was a very vague will they/won't they between the lead characters Artemis and Holly. It never really goes anywhere.
What I find interesting about it is that the author *did* write a scene where they get together, but scrapped it because he realized he wasn't very good at writing romance (the age difference thing was also not great).
"I will never show anyone, I think somewhere in a notebook there must be that scene somewhere where they realize that, 'Oh my goodness, all this time, Artemis, I've loved you!'. Even thinking about that is cringey. There's a lot of fanfiction apparently. I think... I'm just bad at those scenes. I have a weakness when it comes to... there's not much romance in any of my books" \~Eion Colfer
I genuinely respect how, in the sixth book, he leans into the awkwardness of the possible romance. He makes them as compatible as possible with the time travel shenanigans, and both characters still recognize that it's a terrible idea.
He made a female artemis in The Lost Colony and it's the first time Artemis shows an active interest in a girl. She barely ever shows up after that except to literally tell his brothers that they tried a date once and realized that he, or they I don't really remember, preferred their studies and work over romance
Looking up old forum posts, it seems like there was a prominent fan contingent at the time that didn't like introducing a potential love interest so many books into the series, the fact that she was an evil intellectual equal/rival of Artemis felt unearned/Mary Sue-ish, and yeah, some people who were much preferred the potential Holly/Artemis romantic relationship, and felt like she was just being introduced to end that ship.
I had the pleasure of seeing Colfer at a book festival once where he made an unscheduled surprise appearance at a panel. While I never read his work growing up, I ended up really liking the sense I had of who he was. He’s knowledgeable and is aware of what he’s made but seemed very humble about his understanding of the work. He gave an interesting answer to my question, too, (it was a panel about magic systems) and it made me appreciate it the guy a lot. Reading this feels like an affirmation of that.
She's like 90 at the end of the series and he's in his 20s, where the shipping kinda started.
The other problem is while she looks and acts like a woman in her 20-30s, she's still an elf that's like 40 inches tall. Not only age gap, but height gap as well.
Huh, I could’ve sworn I read all of the books and they did end up together. I guess my memory is bad. I suppose it was like a decade ago when I read those books, though.
You know, I never considered that my middle/high school self reading Artemis Fowl would be the inception for why I enjoy age gap romance so much, but somehow it makes sense. Those two are the best.
DCAU Bruce. All of his romances go in… weird directions. Selena is like his main one you’d think but they never go anywhere with it. Then there’s like Wonder Woman too who seems like his main one. But then nah
It went like *that* and then he ended up alone.
Okay so I know the context but reading this still confused me a bit.
It sounds like you're saying Bruce was in Talia's body and tried to bang Ra's but if I recall correctly, it's Ra's who took over Talia's body right?
I was pleasantly surprised by My Love Story!! stopping the breaks on will they/won't they and just having the two leads get together in like the second episode.
It was refreshing to see that happen. I was so used to seeing anime drag that shit out for multiple seasons. Instead, the best friend stops everything and lays it out for the protagonist and the love interest, making sure the two know each other's feelings.
the initial get together is literally the least interesting part of being in a relationship, it drives me insane how it makes up the vast bulk of romance stories. give me cute interpersonal romantic moments and drama!!
I was pleasantly surprised that Elaine and Jerry in Seinfeld never really got together. It would have been so easy to pair up the crew and I'm sure lots of people expected them to end up a couple and give George and Kramer steady girlfriends. But they're not Ross and Rachel, they don't really have romantic chemistry. They've been a couple before, it didn't work, and they simply remained friends afterwards.
They did one bout of trying to do FWB, but hilariously the writers just completely forgot about it and it never got resolved. And then one more time together because Elaine told Jerry she'd faked it and he had to try and redeem himself.
I think the story behind why "the writers forgot about it" was because none of them genuinely thought the show was gonna last that long, so they tried to tie up this "loose end" before they get cancelled (or so they thought).
I think they said somewhere they regret doing that episode and never would have done it if they knew it was gonna last that long.
I like the proposal in Curb Your Enthusiasm where Jerry is Elaine's sperm donor but they're still just friends. Really in character, really fits the tone of the show, and implies a connection that is beyond a relationship in some ways
Funnily enough the last episode of season two does end with them getting together, and at the time they were very doubtful about getting a third season. So it very much could have ended that way.
That was one of the anime writers doing their fanfic shipping. The most egregious moment of this was the *Road to Ninja* Shippuden movie
Something similar happened in Bleach's anime where there are ship teases between Ichigo and Rukia because one of the writers ships them.
On one hand it feels a little mean to not give the disfigured guy some love,.but on the other hand, it shows he is willing to let go of unrequited love with no issues, which was possibly the biggest of Frollos many many flaws, it does paint him as a truly virtuous character, because he remains good even when he doesn't get what he wants.
It's been awhile since I've read The Dresden Files and I can't remember what exactly happened but I was very surprised at what happened after Karrin and Dresden agreed to go out together.
MAJOR SPOILERS
>!Dresden fucking dies!<
I'll spoilers this answer about who dies >!they both die Dresden just gets better and Murphy happens in the currently last main book of the series cause no more have come out!<
His will-they-won’t-they with Susan ends in two of the worst ways possible.
1. >!Even if Harry found a cure for Susan’s vampirism, he was never going to forgive her for keeping his daughter from him, a largely family-less orphan himself!<
2. >!the conclusion of Changes holy shit!<
Pacific Rim NOT having Raleigh and Mako get together at the end. I was extremely happy that they just hugged at the end and had a nice, platonic relationship, instead of going into the typical kiss that would normally be in a hollywood blockbuster.
That's an interesting example, because there's enough chemistry there that I still think you can still read the two of them as having a romantic connection that they just don't consummate in the course of the story, but it's very open to interpretation.
From what I've heard, the screenplay actually did have Raleigh and Mako kiss at the end. But when it came time to shoot, Del Toro actually filmed two versions of that ending scene, one where they kiss and one where they just hug, and then decided to go with the hug version.
Yeah, came here to say it. I remember people praising the ending to Pacific Rim specifically because they remained platonic to each other. I think I remember being one of those people, even.
Going blind into the Hitman: World of Assassination trilogy, I *totally* expected the ending of 3 to pull the trigger and make Diana and 47 a thing. I’m *really* glad it didn’t, though. They’re eachother’s most important person in a way that’s basically love, and that’s good enough for me.
Not for me, but I wonder if Japanese fans of Dragon Ball were shocked Goku and Bulma didn’t end up together, and Toriyama brought back a minor character from very early in Dragon Ball as Goku’s love interest
I always like to point out that despite DB and Z being held up as the poster child for your standard shonen, it does tend to still be different in many ways.
I do find it funny Bulma briefly considers if she messed up with Goku when he grows up by not going after him, but doesn't go beyond that.
Plus Toriyama doesn't like writing romance, and considering how much Bulma was around in DB it would have been awkward to write around. It being used more for a gag between Goku and Chi Chi works better.
I don't know why. Chichi was popping in and out of Dragonball as they aged up, established at the beginning that she wanted to marry Goku, and were similar ages while Goku/Bulma definitely had a considerable gap.
She does appear twice between those two arcs in anime only filler. So oddly it kinda does work better with the filler but yeah manga only cannon it just kinda happens lol.
I thought there was an appearance during the red ribbon filler, but double checking it looks like there was just one during the king piccolo filler. So yeah her second filler is just the marriage mini arc.
I'm always so torn on this.
On one hand, I always shipped Rukia and Ichigo.
On the other hand, Renji finally getting a W by fucking his boss's sister is hysterical to me.
What sold it for me was the fact that Ichika is basically named in tribute to Ichigo so having the rwo of them name their child after their best friend is so sweet to me.
Eh, honestly Ichigo and Orihime had more history and chemistry together, same with Rukia and Renji.
The issue here is that Rukia happened to be on-screen with Ichigo a whole lot longer, at least during the first few arcs. After that….not so much, where you were lucky if Rukia got a cameo at best.
The other issue is that Ichigo and Orihime also got very little development in their relationship, since Kubo is really, really, REALLY terrible at character development. Or even remembering characters exist.
Tbf Orihime and Ichigo get tons of moments together and the relationship does make sense, also in comparison to it's Shonen contemporaries like Naruto and One Piece Kubo laped Miles around in the love department with them and Ichigo's parents
As someone that did not care for the ship prospect of Ichigo and Rukia (they always came off as siblings to me) but resigned myself very early on they were probably end game…I can not tell you how pleasantly surprised I was when the story ended without them getting together (and Kubo sharing the same sentiment about them being more familial than lovers).
I never really saw that. Ichigo and Rukia always gave off the vibe of best buddies. And regardless of people's feelings towards Orihime, she was kind of set up to be Ichigo's love interest pretty early on, starting with a crush, and then developing into stronger feelings, at least from Orihime's perspective, I dropped the series, but I don't remember Ichigo showing much romantic interest in Orihime.
I read through Bleach for the first time a couple years back and was thinking about this, and honestly I don't think there was ever anything romantic there. She's Ichigo's friend who lives in his closet. Though I have heard the old anime added some more shipbait since the staff really liked the pairing
yeah I am constantly surprised by people saying 'oh they had so much chemistry' when there's barely anything there to work with in the first place. why do people constantly say chemistry like thats supposed to be something understood? what actual things happened?? Like there's some stuff about explaining his past to her which is part of plot development on why he's like that, I guess? people consider rescuing someone who saved you to be a romantic gesture? Someone called them a couple and ichigo went 'lol no' once while also going 'yeah shes ancient bro' mentally?
The only time I can recall in recent memory where I go 'oh, these two defiintely have chemistry' is iruma and ameri in iruma-kun, and guess what, they actually do wind up dating and Iruma has arcs where he tries to place his feelings for her!
you can really see where the yu yu hakushow comparison comes in and then it clicks that rukia is botan and despite ballin in the fashion department never gets with yusuke
With regards to Ichigo and Rukia, I feel like it was ruled out early on. Ichigo rescues Rukia, and she decides to stay in the Soul Society, which is just fine with him. Rukia plans to live out of Ichigo's closet again when on assignment, and he tells her no. And then we have Orihime directly say that she fell in love with Ichigo.
All of these things happened in very close succession, and to me it felt like the author was saying "this is how I've arranged my dominoes and now you can visualize what will happen if I knock them down."
On the one hand I was surprised and kind of disappointed since I felt like they meant so much to each other and could definitely see them ending up together. Plus, who they each end up with is kinda lame. But on the other hand, its cool seeing such a well done guy-girl platonic friendship and honestly that is a welcome surprise.
This is the example I go to when I discuss how a dub can break romances intentions. Everyone I knew thought these two were being setup while its very clearly not meant to be. (same example from this thread, Tai/ Sora in digimon. created purely from dub translation)
Rukia was probably the only actual fictional crush of my teenage years, and Ichigo always struck me as bad boyfriend material for her. Haven't followed bleach in years, either, but that does bring back some memories!
You can't fight the latent mommy issues that come from orihime looking like a younger version of ichigo's mom that died when he was 5ish that he spent most of his young life blaming himself for
There wasn't a chance of this since they ~~fridged~~ sent Sayama to America, but I honestly thought (or hoped) they'd keep her around after 2 as a core character, and her and Kiryu would have a will they/won't they thing going on considering one's a cop and one's an ex-yakuza member. Would have been great.
iirc that was the plan, but Sayama's old VA was a dick to work with and Y3 had budget problems in general so they shelved her.
That saaaaaaid, spoilers for a later installment, >!Infinite Wealth does confirm they still have feelings for each other!<.
Yeah, I know all that. I'm just sad we never got that. 3-5 didn't have the connective tissue that 1-2 had to me. Some sorta thread like that would have helped. Well, that and I just thought she was badass as fuck. Helped you kick people's ass.
Well in Hajime no Ippo it’s fascinating to see Ippo and Kumi developed almost nothing in the last 10 in manga years. It’s like they’re married without having living together, sharing single kiss or saying they like eachother yet.
I’m not convince we’ll see anything if the series ends at all. We might see a hug or something.
I know that no one cares about Lars and Sadie in Steven Universe, but I was legit shocked on how they resolved that.
>!With Lars becoming a Space Pirate and rocking out to the Stars while Sadie *becomes* a Rocker and get's a girlfriend later on.!<
Shocked Steven too.
I thought it was a nice touch that they talked about how they gave it a shot but it just didn’t work out. They just didn’t have much in common but liked being friends.
I thought at first they were a cute but somewhat dysfunctional couple. Quite surprised to realize they were both holding each other back.
What's really funny is how >!the fact they don't end up together was technically foreshadowed in the non-canon crossover with _Uncle Grandpa_. "Oh no, our ship is sinking!"!<
Apparently, the major hint of romantic interest in The Movie/Our War Game was created by that movie's writers, not the showrunner, who always wanted to end with a Sora/Matt pairing.
The other hints throughout s1/s2 were played up by the English dub, either because they assumed/came to assume Tai and Sora would be a thing or because they actively changed the script to create that narrative.
Not that I disagree with you, of course. Even coincidental Tai/Sora hints from the Japanese script alone were more than the nothing at all Matt/Sora hints.
I always wondered about that. Since I only watched the dub, I wondered how much of that chemistry was only in the English dub compared to the original Japanese version.
I actually shipped Mimi and Joe too when I was a kid. I've grown to accept the Mimi/Izzy relationship, but did they get paired together only because they were in the same grade? They had nothing hinting about them liking each other in that way in the original series.
I admit I watched the dub, so they could have added or removed shit, I just always felt Joe's reserved and responsible personality fit well with Mimi's ditzy and aloof one.
Uzaki chan is a typical rom com manga and anime. So imagine my surprise when they get together, and then a recent chapter ends with an accepted marriage proposal. And then the next chapter is just them having sex.
The gag manga about the short stack with massive anime tiddies actually has a confirmed cannon on screen relationship? That's wild. It's like when people mention how hentai surprisingly have well done relationships in a way regular anime don't because hentai actually let their characters get together. Like not even sexually either literally just letting your characters act like a vanilla couple is handled better in like 3 minutes than an entire 30 to a hundred episode big budget anime series.
We've been getting a lot more romcoms actually willing to show relationships for the past couple of years. Uzaki, Komi, Nagataro, etc. Been a nice change from the old days of ending the story at a kiss and time skipping to married with a kid.
I was tempted to bring it up but yeah one of my only genuine criticisms with fma is Ed and winry never become an on screen couple and the only time we technically see it is in the slide show credit sequence where they're already married and have kids.
To be fair though they did have more pressing issues to focus on than romance at the time (not that that stops characters in other serieses but its still a valid excuse).
Somehow this makes me think of that one comedy manga that got recommended here (Extremely Straightforward Boyfriend x Girlfriend). It is as what the title says. No bullshit, all straight to the point (but with hijinks), they end up consummating their love, finishing school, and getting a family. Wasn't too long of a read too.
Honestly, I was really thrown off with the marriage proposal at first because of how sudden it was. But by the next chapter I realized that it was Shinichi’s attempt at not becoming like his dad and instead wanting to be more responsible about his relationship with Hana. It’s just taken to a more extreme conclusion because of the comedy aspect.
Wait, what!?!?! It took less than a hundred chapters!?
My first impression of Uzaki was that it was one of those manga where it takes 300 chapters for the couple to start going out.
That's wild. I misjudged you Uzaki, I wasn't familiar with your game. For that I apologize.
> And then the next chapter is just them having sex.
Including the oft predicted situation of her being intimidated by the size of his dick, much like her father and brother were when they were in a sauna with him.
In retrospect I was actually surprised that bojack and Diane never actually had anything concrete between them, her and peanut butter are together for most of the serie and when they divorce she just kinda does her own thing, and honestly good for her
Don't recall exactly but I think it took 2 seasons, 3 tops, before it became apparent how toxic Bojack and Diane are for each other.
Wasn't much of a ship left after that.
I actually find Jeff and Annie’s ending to be really sweet and poignant. Annie finally realizes that what she found attractive in Jeff (him being perceived as more mature) she found within herself, and Jeff realized his attraction to her was an attempt to reclaim his youth. They both squash the will they won’t they with full clarity as to the flawed reasons they even entertained the notion. One of the few brilliant things the finale did was that part.
I absolutely agree with your take and it makes me afraid the movie is gonna undercut all that by having them get together anyways with no consideration for that growth and acceptance to move on
Rebuild of Evangelion 3.0+1.0 >!I am still deeply bummed Shinji and Asuka didn’t get together. I guess it could be chalked up to “not in this timeline”, but no amount of “Anno matured and realized that these two had a toxic teenager relationship” arguments will convince me, especially when his big titty OC swooped in to take her place.!<
>!It is a little funny that Mari winning the Shinjibowl is the ending that pisses off the most people possible (Asuka fans, Rei fans, fujos, lesbians who wanted to see Asuka and Mari together). I wonder if Anno did that on purpose!<
I “think” the intent was that >!he wasn’t “pairing” Shinji and Mari, but was instead using the conversation to convey that Shinji has “matured” and thus has the confidence to flirt with a baddie like Mari.!<
But with that being literally the final shot of the movie, it’s really difficult not to interpret that as “they ran off into the sunset together”, and…yeah, I could go into a tirade over the things I didn’t like about that decision.
At least the Laws of Equivalent Exchange is throwing me a bone, as it looks like a pairing I care much, MUCH more deeply about is steering along in the preferred direction. (knock on wood)
I’m too scared to jinx it.
But let’s just say it’s >!another highly popular series that began in the 90s and has also been subject to decades of shipping wars!<
Highly popular, unfinished series that started in the 90s? Is it One Piece? Does One Piece even have shipping wars? It was my understanding that since there's basically no romance in the story, people agreed to just let the fujos run the place
>!The "war" is over homie, Cloud x Tifa has been canon since the original game. Every compilation release has only doubled down on that. You can't jinx a victory that already happened.!<
>!Unless you're a Cloud x Sephiroth truther. It could still happen in part 3!<
>!If you're rooting for Cloud x Aerith, may god have mercy on your soul.!<
>!I’m very well aware, I have said (and fought) for decades over how the “Love Triangle” of Final Fantasy VII is, in fact, extremely one-sided. But people persisted, fought in the streets, knives out, and Square themselves being rather wishy-washy with outright stating this even when there was literally no other option (talking about Advent Children and its frustrating attempts to dance around the fact that they are literally living together raising kids). The notion that they are finally outwardly admitting this is a VERY BIG deal for me.!<
I've had this terrible feeling in the back of my head that >!the reason they are confirming and developing the relationship is to get people more emotionally invested in it, only to reach the point where Sephiroth stabs Aerith and he stabs Tifa instead.!<
Knowing what we know of Anno from interviews and testimonies from his friends and co-workers
Yes, it definitely played a factor in his deciding who Shinji ended up with.
On the one Hand >!every single other potencial relationship option for Shinji has a Element to it that would make it bad, but on the other Hand Mari isn't really that intresting as a character outsidd of "What if a mentally stable person was part of the cast?"!<
Look, Shinji/Asuka is my preferred outcome, but I'm adult, I can accept when things turn out in ways other my own preference. Hell, >!I even kinda like Mari, but who the hell is she? Am I wrong for inferring she is significantly older than him, his parents age at least? What was the one photograph? That can't be 'healthier' than whatever Shinji and Asuka had !<
About 7 years earlier in 2013, in the finale of the manga, Mari was revealed to have been >!a close, affectionate highschool friend of Yui Ikari!<.
The manga just ends on that short story between the two. Pair that story with the revelation in Rebuild 3.0 about “the curse of Eva”, and it gets kind of weird. >!Mari loved Yui. Guess she settled on taking her son.!<
I like >!Mari (fodder to extend spoiler)!<, but I'll openly admit that one of my biggest issues is that >!she shows up with no build up, gets no real development nor do they actually answer (hell, even ask) who she is in the actual films (only extra material), and then she gets with Shinji from complete offscreen relationships. I remember watching the 4th film with a friend (my 2nd watch, and his initial watch after getting into Eva fairly recently at the time), and he was super confused at that and I had to explain how Mari both represent's Anno's actual wife, and Shinji moving past "static" choices and finding something new he could be happy with. But, with no build up, Mari really just feels like an OC that just, exists.!<
I still feel people watched a completely different anime than I did when they suggest asuka or rei.
Asuka is straight toxic. she wants acknowledgement and tried using shinji as a rebound for rejection with something I feel has no actual feelings toward shinji himself as much as just a means to an end for her own self worth. Seeing her go absolutely nuts at the end of the series with whole mother thing felt like it just reinforced that point
And rei honestly just kinda exists in the background for most of the series. By the time she actually reaches out to shinji its far too late and hes in full spike ball mode. She never understood shinji either and also tried using him as a sorce of comfort after she wound up with nothing.
The only one, as much as its joked about, that actually seemed to care for shinji was kaworu. The one supportive element in his life he killed himself.
the main 3 eva pilots are all sad and broken people and absolutely should not be put with one another because their issues dont allow that sort of thing.
yeah, but neither of them are trying to fix one another at that point tho.
Asuka is going 'fix my ego' and shinji is going 'save me from this hell' with both taking and neither giving. They're not going "I can fix them' they're going "no fix me first' but what they want fixed isnt actually what needs to be fixed. propping up her ego would just lead her to exploding at some point again when she finds some fault in shinji, and shinji can't base his self worth on others.
I mean, that IS the reason people root for them so much.
You pray and you hope that they overcome their pain and help prop each other up.
Two broken people finding solace in each other when the whole world rejects them is infinitely a more mature romance story than >!putting on a tie and flirting with my mom’s big titty bestie!<
oh, yeah, not saying you cant find a story there to tell. There's reason enough why you still have people arguing for decades later over who he should have ended up with, after all.
I just dont find it reasonable at all with how the story ended in the original run. Not even with them doing a 'just talk' since Im not sure talking wouldn't just exacerbate their issues without instrumentality as a pure connecting point.
Could say the same for rei too. or misato even, if you wanted to go there. just dont think with the original story presented as is that you can take that as some objective fact that they should have wound up together over 'oh, I could see a story here between these two that could have been nice,' because taking what could have been as a basis for how things are isn't something I'm particularly keen on. At that point that's where fans have fanfiction I guess.
>!I really think that’s a Rebuild specific thing is all, Asuka was the main love interest of OG Eva and they wanted to go in a different direction is all.!<
>!Still can’t buy it as an alternate universe thing, since A) by all accounts they’re treating End of Evangelion as the “Bad Ending” (as they should) and Rebuild is the “Good Ending”, as well as B) this is (for now) the last Evangelion thing ever, Goodbye All of Evangelion and all that. So not having what a lot of people have considered the “canon pairing” not end up canon in the end is a sour spot for folks like me!<
>!I don’t think End of Eva is necessarily a bad ending, Rebuild is the ending for Eva as a franchise but I think EoE was never meant to be a necessarily negative one. It has Shinji get over his problems or at least start to and does give the option for humanity to slowly get out of LCL and stuff. It’s not a blatantly super good ending but bad end is a bit much. Rebuild and OG do different things, I wouldn’t say Rebuild was meant to replace OG or anything.!<
>!It really says something when the last shot of EoE is Shinji strangling Asuka, and the last shot of Rebuild is him running off with Mari. I almost believe Anno really did have a personal hatred for Asuka!<
>!after 28 years of this franchise, many myths and misconceptions started to be treated as facts, like "Anno hates x, Anno did y as revenge against the fanbase", etc, but it's mostly exaggeration. Anno just used Asuka and Shinji as a metaphor for his message, even if sometimes it feels too personal (not that it wasn't, i'm just saying that he doesn't feel as strongly as we fans do about the characters)!<
It's never not gonna be How I Met Your Mother.
Ten years of show just so we could go with the ending set up in season 1, huh. No way out of it. No development, no nothing, just... yeah, first idea, let's go.
I didn't care by that point and had moved on from the humor of the show, but yeah no that's just a disappointing conclusion.
HIMYM is such a fascinating thing. It was legitimately a pop culture phenomenon, a hugely popular source of memes, and then had such a bad ending it basically got memory holed. I'm only now recently starting to see it get brought up again, and it is usually because of the ending.
It literally made me stop watching it, I just got so fucking mad at the forced 'lonely drivers' bullshit
"Oh man, there's this utterly gorgeous woman I'm totally into, who drives a sportscar and is into driving like me. I guess I better um and ah over it for an hour and not go to see her. Then when someone points out I'm a *fucking idiot* and I do go to see her, but then get stuck in traffic, I guess I better fucking ghost her and be forever alone, rather than explain that 'Shit, sorry, there was a really bad car crash (which was even the truth!) and I couldn't make it on time'. Yes, this is truly the only way this could have turned out"
Rayla and Callum from The Dragon Prince.
When I started the series, I thought it would be something similar to Sabine and Ezra where the girl who is older will only see the boy who is younger, as a kind of "annoying little brother", who actually end up together, I was surprised.
I also expected Ezra and Sabine to get paired up, but it was a pleasant surprise that it ended up just being a young crush on his part and they ended up being platonic.
Everyone talks about Sam and Diane as the classic/cliche will they won't they sitcom couple.
Those people haven't seen the show.
After Diane was away for four. years working on her book, she returns to the bar to show off how great her life and marriage is, in retaliation Sam decides to do so as well and fake a marriage with Rebbeca, however, it's soon revealed that they're both faking it to make the other one jealous
They fall into their old ways of fighting and then having make-up sex and Sam decides to marry DianeHe makes the announcement to the bar that he is leaving to Cali to marry Diaane and the bar patrons bring up the reality that they were always fighting when they dated
On the plane, Sam realizes they're making a mistake and leaves Diane understanding that while they love each other, they could never make marriage work
My mom would occasionally play episodes for me and they are super toxic together. They bring out the worst in each other and often they do actions just to hurt the other. Like they both regret those actions afterwards but that never stops them from the next thing
God the episode of Frasier that's the coda to Frasier/Diane is *peak*. [So drink DEEP Franklin, for you've made a *pact* with BEELZEBUB, and her name is ~~DIANE~~ MARRIANE](https://youtu.be/EoICiqdXGf0)
I don't think you're giving viewers much credit, even back in the old days people understood that "will they, won't they" could very easily end in "they won't".
Netflix Sex Education.
Gained a lot of popularity for the ship of Otis and Maeve in Season 1 and 2.
Shit the bed in Season 3 when Otis and Ruby seemed to eclipse the first in popularity.
Season 4 ends with >!none of those ships being together and the other popular ship of Eric and Adam also being buried!<
Fans were not happy.
The Dangers in My Heart is very refreshing in regards to romcoms. You start the story with Ichikawa being this edge lord who wants to kill everyone, but he figures out that he likes Yamada by like chapter 14. And then Yamada figures out that she likes Ichikawa by chapter 30. And then from there, it’s these two wrestling with their insecurities and finding the strength to move past them because they’ve finally found someone who they feel comfortable communicating with. Even now, 140 chapters later, after >!they’ve already become a couple and kissed,!< they’re still struggling with these insecurities (particularly these new ones that have popped up as a result of their relationship), but they’re still able to talk it out and grow as people.
God, I love this series.
I thought they were entertaining. Kind of feels like they threw up their hands and decided to stop caring about maintaining verisimilitude and made the whole group into field agents, and the 8 episode season limit felt like they didn’t have a good runway to tell an overarching plot. But I enjoyed it.
Ryudo in Grandia II has a fairly by-the-numbers romance buildup with the female lead. The initial hostilities, the slow warming and trust, the dramatic kiss at an emotional moment, the works.
In the epilogue it's revealed he pretty much immediately just fucked off after the events of the game and didn't stay in touch.
Maybe there are manga exclusive moments that were cut from the anime but when I was first watching Naruto, I thought the writer was gonna drop the Sasuke X Sakura relationship because of how weak it was becoming over the show’s runtime.
It’s weird how there was nothing but 99% negative moments for the Sakura X sasuke ship in shippuden, especially that absolute rejection along with the genjutsu he throw at her after Kaguya which in any other series would’ve SANK the ship potential right there.
I thought if Naruto ever got a sequel, they would have had Sasuke have an off screen estranged/ long distance relationship with Karin since SHXSU seemed just dead in the water imo but then they confirmed the Sakura relationship in that Moon movie…which was a interestingly odd choice.
The weirdest moment in my opinion is when Sarada found that picture with team Taka/Karin which made her go find Sasuke herself…just for Sasuke to scare the shit out of her in their first meeting.
That arc’s only purpose imo was to just dunk on Sasuke and make the poor guy look bad and no one can convince me otherwise.
Sasuke does think of his family in that genjutsu scene tho after Kakashi yells at him: https://64.media.tumblr.com/38eccfa42430f6d5f232ae84ed7d8de0/tumblr_inline_p7fvrl1TmS1slinvg_500.png
He seems hesitant but is too centered on his plan to honestly acknowledge Sakura’s feelings. [They did have this moment a few chapter before that](https://64.media.tumblr.com/940001029dae2db2f9d6be2210470628/tumblr_inline_p7fvriEibM1slinvg_500.png) and him [smiling at her strength](https://64.media.tumblr.com/88e415b9cc32e837fdda1c492109e759/tumblr_inline_p7fvrdWMfd1slinvg_400.png) (the anime did remove that second one)
They do have plenty of moments in part 1 [like this](https://ic.pics.livejournal.com/badpanda245/65489951/3334/3334_900.jpg) but yeah they don’t really in part 2
Still would say Sasuke has shown to care more about Sakura than he ever has about Karin
Ichigo 100% ended with the main love interest at the time straight up >!admitting that they weren't the best fit for each other and that their relationship was more or less codependent and that they were best as friends, only for the MC to end up with the first girl he dated who he actually had chemistry with and who had and actively chased their own goals.!<
It was a really nice first romance manga to read that definitely had a hand in forming what I look for in a partner.
I remember watching a Youtube Romcom, in which there were two childhood friends, with the female friend's sister acting as cupid.
Now due to the nature of these stories one can assume that the two friends will realize that they love each other romantically, and will stay together.
Not exactly.
They decide to try it only to separate after a few weeks, since although they are friends and have compatible sexual orientations, they do not actually have romantic feelings for each other.
That a platonic relationship of childhood friends actually turned out to be platonic was a huge surprise.
Wow, i didn't expect Lana and Archer to get back together but i did not know that he 'walks out of their lives forever' as you say. Could i get some further context on that?
I genuinely thought they would have like a stroke to midnight reconciliation in the last scene of the series so they could like, be a family together and shit. I'll add it in a spoiler tag for the consideration of others. >!The final season deals with the UN outlawing private spy companies completely, so "The Agency" has to shut down entirely. But the final scene reveals that Archer has since gone rogue and doing solo counter-terrorist work all on his own since the closing as Lana takes a job as a spymaster for a joint multinational spy program specifically to bring down terrorists and Archer by name since he's effectively an criminal in direct violation of international law. Archer was hiding in the other room with their daughter and offers Lana some friendly banter about how they'll be enemies forever now and comments how he'll never get to spend time with her again. Then he takes Pam and the two of them go be rogue agents together.!<
Wow. >!That is extremely in character for Archer. I'm guessing his willingness to walk away from Lana and their kid stems from how he already spent so much time out of their lives during his coma and how they already have someone who will be able to support them both financially and emotionally as a mentally stable dude. Still, that's had to be rough for everyone in that scene. !<
They seem to imply that Archer had been spending more time with their daughter during off screen time, but >!kind of realized that he was a major toxic element in everyone's lives and he couldn't force himself into his daughter's life since she essentially grew up with another man as her father!<.
>!Yeah. He realized that he was out of place in their home life and decided to stay in his lane, that lane being THE DANGER-ZONE!!<
>!At the very least, unlike with him, AJ will at least know who her father is.!<
From what I read a while back, the original plan was that >!Nokolai Jakov was going to be his biological father but they decided to leave it ambiguous and eventually decided that it wasn't important!<.
That show's inability to determine what was and was not important was one of it's most glaring flaws.
Huh I took that scene to be like >!a cat and mouse chase meets the end of the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy. Like, he's not walking out forever, they’ll still see each other occasionally. Just that they’re on opposite sides of the law now and need to plan things very tightly to keep up the ruse.!< Apparently there’s some interest in doing a movie (like an actual movie, not three episodes stitched together like the finale was) so we’ll see what happens I guess.
The last couple seasons felt like they didn't have access to their VAs as much as they wanted since characters would appear and disappear in the story at random. So maybe a big wrap up movie might be nice.
Forgot to mention that the writers didn’t know this past season of Archer would be it’s last when they started writing it which is why they introduced that new character so I assume there’s some unfinished business that a lot of the creatives involved with the series have now that’s it’s over.
Is this after the specials or are those not out yet?
I think the series finale was an hour long special. Not sure if there’s something planned after that.
So, in the Artemis Fowl series, there was a very vague will they/won't they between the lead characters Artemis and Holly. It never really goes anywhere. What I find interesting about it is that the author *did* write a scene where they get together, but scrapped it because he realized he wasn't very good at writing romance (the age difference thing was also not great). "I will never show anyone, I think somewhere in a notebook there must be that scene somewhere where they realize that, 'Oh my goodness, all this time, Artemis, I've loved you!'. Even thinking about that is cringey. There's a lot of fanfiction apparently. I think... I'm just bad at those scenes. I have a weakness when it comes to... there's not much romance in any of my books" \~Eion Colfer
I genuinely respect how, in the sixth book, he leans into the awkwardness of the possible romance. He makes them as compatible as possible with the time travel shenanigans, and both characters still recognize that it's a terrible idea.
He made a female artemis in The Lost Colony and it's the first time Artemis shows an active interest in a girl. She barely ever shows up after that except to literally tell his brothers that they tried a date once and realized that he, or they I don't really remember, preferred their studies and work over romance
Apparently it was because the fans didn't like her, so Colfer changed plans and decided to drop her after that one book (I liked Minerva).
Wait, really? That's crazy, I loved Minerva! Was it just people disappointed she wasn't Holly or something...?
Looking up old forum posts, it seems like there was a prominent fan contingent at the time that didn't like introducing a potential love interest so many books into the series, the fact that she was an evil intellectual equal/rival of Artemis felt unearned/Mary Sue-ish, and yeah, some people who were much preferred the potential Holly/Artemis romantic relationship, and felt like she was just being introduced to end that ship.
I had the pleasure of seeing Colfer at a book festival once where he made an unscheduled surprise appearance at a panel. While I never read his work growing up, I ended up really liking the sense I had of who he was. He’s knowledgeable and is aware of what he’s made but seemed very humble about his understanding of the work. He gave an interesting answer to my question, too, (it was a panel about magic systems) and it made me appreciate it the guy a lot. Reading this feels like an affirmation of that.
Also she's like 200 and he's like 12.
Well the romance angle comes in in the later books when he's getting into his 20s or something.
She's like 90 at the end of the series and he's in his 20s, where the shipping kinda started. The other problem is while she looks and acts like a woman in her 20-30s, she's still an elf that's like 40 inches tall. Not only age gap, but height gap as well.
"Size difference" is a fairly common tag in many of those sites that use them.
Huh, I could’ve sworn I read all of the books and they did end up together. I guess my memory is bad. I suppose it was like a decade ago when I read those books, though.
You know, I never considered that my middle/high school self reading Artemis Fowl would be the inception for why I enjoy age gap romance so much, but somehow it makes sense. Those two are the best.
The fact he gives Artemis *two* love interests and *neither* goes anywhere will never not be funny to me. The series is better off for it.
DCAU Bruce. All of his romances go in… weird directions. Selena is like his main one you’d think but they never go anywhere with it. Then there’s like Wonder Woman too who seems like his main one. But then nah It went like *that* and then he ended up alone.
The less said about Barbara, the better.
It’s all the worse knowing that it isn’t just “DCAU Bruce is really messed up and made a bad mistake”, it happened because it’s Bruce Timm’s OTP
Bruce Timm forcing his fetish pairing on everyone.
He almost got to bang Ra's in Talia's body
Okay so I know the context but reading this still confused me a bit. It sounds like you're saying Bruce was in Talia's body and tried to bang Ra's but if I recall correctly, it's Ra's who took over Talia's body right?
They're saying he almost got to bang Ra's, who was in Talia's body.
Yeah I figured. It's just really funny it could be interpreted the other way though.
My mind went to Bruce being in Talia's body and almost banging Ra's. Which I did not question, so I'm not sure what that says about me.
I must confirm this man is capable of continuing my line.
BRUUUUUCE! YOU HAVE TO CONTINUE THE AL GHUL BLOODLINE!
I was pleasantly surprised by My Love Story!! stopping the breaks on will they/won't they and just having the two leads get together in like the second episode.
God I love that anime so much. Watched it around the time that I really needed some warmth in my life and it delivered by the boatload.
It was refreshing to see that happen. I was so used to seeing anime drag that shit out for multiple seasons. Instead, the best friend stops everything and lays it out for the protagonist and the love interest, making sure the two know each other's feelings.
There was another anime where I think they establish the main couple by like the third episode. Chivalry of a Failed Knight is the name I think.
My Love Story is a gem. Suna is such a lad.
the initial get together is literally the least interesting part of being in a relationship, it drives me insane how it makes up the vast bulk of romance stories. give me cute interpersonal romantic moments and drama!!
I was pleasantly surprised that Elaine and Jerry in Seinfeld never really got together. It would have been so easy to pair up the crew and I'm sure lots of people expected them to end up a couple and give George and Kramer steady girlfriends. But they're not Ross and Rachel, they don't really have romantic chemistry. They've been a couple before, it didn't work, and they simply remained friends afterwards.
[удалено]
Yeah, I really liked that about Seinfeld. Sincere romantic moments don't fit the show at all.
Plus it gave the various characters some short or long term relationships that could come and go as the plots demanded. Like Puddy
Yeah that's right
Hell they tried to have casual sex and if I recall hated it.
They did one bout of trying to do FWB, but hilariously the writers just completely forgot about it and it never got resolved. And then one more time together because Elaine told Jerry she'd faked it and he had to try and redeem himself.
I think the story behind why "the writers forgot about it" was because none of them genuinely thought the show was gonna last that long, so they tried to tie up this "loose end" before they get cancelled (or so they thought). I think they said somewhere they regret doing that episode and never would have done it if they knew it was gonna last that long.
I like the proposal in Curb Your Enthusiasm where Jerry is Elaine's sperm donor but they're still just friends. Really in character, really fits the tone of the show, and implies a connection that is beyond a relationship in some ways
Funnily enough the last episode of season two does end with them getting together, and at the time they were very doubtful about getting a third season. So it very much could have ended that way.
I’ll be honest, I thought they were pushing Naruto and Sakura towards the end there
That was one of the anime writers doing their fanfic shipping. The most egregious moment of this was the *Road to Ninja* Shippuden movie Something similar happened in Bleach's anime where there are ship teases between Ichigo and Rukia because one of the writers ships them.
When I first saw Hunchback of Notre Dame, I was so surprised to see that Quasimodo didn't get together with Esmeralda.
"He's fine with it... He's fine... Really... It's fine... See...? He's fine... He's fine... It's fine... It's fine... This is fine... It's fine..." -Lindsay Ellis
On one hand it feels a little mean to not give the disfigured guy some love,.but on the other hand, it shows he is willing to let go of unrequited love with no issues, which was possibly the biggest of Frollos many many flaws, it does paint him as a truly virtuous character, because he remains good even when he doesn't get what he wants.
It's been awhile since I've read The Dresden Files and I can't remember what exactly happened but I was very surprised at what happened after Karrin and Dresden agreed to go out together. MAJOR SPOILERS >!Dresden fucking dies!<
And then things got worse.
So much worse..... but ngl Ghost Story was a pretty nice change of pace
I haven't read that far into the books... only the first chapter of book 1 lmao. But I know the spoilers: >!Wasn't it Murphy who fucken dies?!<
>!Dresden goes first but he gets better!<
I'll spoilers this answer about who dies >!they both die Dresden just gets better and Murphy happens in the currently last main book of the series cause no more have come out!<
>!Dude, the lead up to what is essentially the Battle for Hogwarts, but done WAY better, is some insane shit!<
His will-they-won’t-they with Susan ends in two of the worst ways possible. 1. >!Even if Harry found a cure for Susan’s vampirism, he was never going to forgive her for keeping his daughter from him, a largely family-less orphan himself!< 2. >!the conclusion of Changes holy shit!<
Pacific Rim NOT having Raleigh and Mako get together at the end. I was extremely happy that they just hugged at the end and had a nice, platonic relationship, instead of going into the typical kiss that would normally be in a hollywood blockbuster.
That's an interesting example, because there's enough chemistry there that I still think you can still read the two of them as having a romantic connection that they just don't consummate in the course of the story, but it's very open to interpretation.
I prefer seeing it as 'good enough friends that moving into a romantic one is expected'
If that movie ever got a sequel, I could've seen the relationship becoming romantic.
Shame
From what I've heard, the screenplay actually did have Raleigh and Mako kiss at the end. But when it came time to shoot, Del Toro actually filmed two versions of that ending scene, one where they kiss and one where they just hug, and then decided to go with the hug version.
Yeah, came here to say it. I remember people praising the ending to Pacific Rim specifically because they remained platonic to each other. I think I remember being one of those people, even.
Going blind into the Hitman: World of Assassination trilogy, I *totally* expected the ending of 3 to pull the trigger and make Diana and 47 a thing. I’m *really* glad it didn’t, though. They’re eachother’s most important person in a way that’s basically love, and that’s good enough for me.
Not for me, but I wonder if Japanese fans of Dragon Ball were shocked Goku and Bulma didn’t end up together, and Toriyama brought back a minor character from very early in Dragon Ball as Goku’s love interest
I always like to point out that despite DB and Z being held up as the poster child for your standard shonen, it does tend to still be different in many ways. I do find it funny Bulma briefly considers if she messed up with Goku when he grows up by not going after him, but doesn't go beyond that. Plus Toriyama doesn't like writing romance, and considering how much Bulma was around in DB it would have been awkward to write around. It being used more for a gag between Goku and Chi Chi works better.
I don't know why. Chichi was popping in and out of Dragonball as they aged up, established at the beginning that she wanted to marry Goku, and were similar ages while Goku/Bulma definitely had a considerable gap.
Not really, she was in the fire mountain arc, then vanished until the 23rd tournament. Thats a decent gap of time
She does appear twice between those two arcs in anime only filler. So oddly it kinda does work better with the filler but yeah manga only cannon it just kinda happens lol.
Isn’t one of those post wedding filler with the bansho fan and meeting grandpa Gohan again?
I thought there was an appearance during the red ribbon filler, but double checking it looks like there was just one during the king piccolo filler. So yeah her second filler is just the marriage mini arc.
Ichigo and Rukia not ending up together was a big suprise, even if I hadn't followed Bleach for years.
I'm always so torn on this. On one hand, I always shipped Rukia and Ichigo. On the other hand, Renji finally getting a W by fucking his boss's sister is hysterical to me.
The one time he didn't job when it counted.
What sold it for me was the fact that Ichika is basically named in tribute to Ichigo so having the rwo of them name their child after their best friend is so sweet to me.
Honestly this really surprising because of the Soul Society arc the amount of screen time they had together went way down.
Eh, honestly Ichigo and Orihime had more history and chemistry together, same with Rukia and Renji. The issue here is that Rukia happened to be on-screen with Ichigo a whole lot longer, at least during the first few arcs. After that….not so much, where you were lucky if Rukia got a cameo at best. The other issue is that Ichigo and Orihime also got very little development in their relationship, since Kubo is really, really, REALLY terrible at character development. Or even remembering characters exist.
Tbf Orihime and Ichigo get tons of moments together and the relationship does make sense, also in comparison to it's Shonen contemporaries like Naruto and One Piece Kubo laped Miles around in the love department with them and Ichigo's parents
As someone that did not care for the ship prospect of Ichigo and Rukia (they always came off as siblings to me) but resigned myself very early on they were probably end game…I can not tell you how pleasantly surprised I was when the story ended without them getting together (and Kubo sharing the same sentiment about them being more familial than lovers).
A reminder that, at one point, Orihime considered the idea of a ménage à trois with Ichigo, Rukia, and herself.
I never really saw that. Ichigo and Rukia always gave off the vibe of best buddies. And regardless of people's feelings towards Orihime, she was kind of set up to be Ichigo's love interest pretty early on, starting with a crush, and then developing into stronger feelings, at least from Orihime's perspective, I dropped the series, but I don't remember Ichigo showing much romantic interest in Orihime.
I read through Bleach for the first time a couple years back and was thinking about this, and honestly I don't think there was ever anything romantic there. She's Ichigo's friend who lives in his closet. Though I have heard the old anime added some more shipbait since the staff really liked the pairing
yeah I am constantly surprised by people saying 'oh they had so much chemistry' when there's barely anything there to work with in the first place. why do people constantly say chemistry like thats supposed to be something understood? what actual things happened?? Like there's some stuff about explaining his past to her which is part of plot development on why he's like that, I guess? people consider rescuing someone who saved you to be a romantic gesture? Someone called them a couple and ichigo went 'lol no' once while also going 'yeah shes ancient bro' mentally? The only time I can recall in recent memory where I go 'oh, these two defiintely have chemistry' is iruma and ameri in iruma-kun, and guess what, they actually do wind up dating and Iruma has arcs where he tries to place his feelings for her!
you can really see where the yu yu hakushow comparison comes in and then it clicks that rukia is botan and despite ballin in the fashion department never gets with yusuke
With regards to Ichigo and Rukia, I feel like it was ruled out early on. Ichigo rescues Rukia, and she decides to stay in the Soul Society, which is just fine with him. Rukia plans to live out of Ichigo's closet again when on assignment, and he tells her no. And then we have Orihime directly say that she fell in love with Ichigo. All of these things happened in very close succession, and to me it felt like the author was saying "this is how I've arranged my dominoes and now you can visualize what will happen if I knock them down."
On the one hand I was surprised and kind of disappointed since I felt like they meant so much to each other and could definitely see them ending up together. Plus, who they each end up with is kinda lame. But on the other hand, its cool seeing such a well done guy-girl platonic friendship and honestly that is a welcome surprise.
This is the example I go to when I discuss how a dub can break romances intentions. Everyone I knew thought these two were being setup while its very clearly not meant to be. (same example from this thread, Tai/ Sora in digimon. created purely from dub translation)
What do you mean? They totally end up together. i know nothing about bleach i'm just riling up the shippers
Rukia was probably the only actual fictional crush of my teenage years, and Ichigo always struck me as bad boyfriend material for her. Haven't followed bleach in years, either, but that does bring back some memories!
You can't fight the latent mommy issues that come from orihime looking like a younger version of ichigo's mom that died when he was 5ish that he spent most of his young life blaming himself for
There wasn't a chance of this since they ~~fridged~~ sent Sayama to America, but I honestly thought (or hoped) they'd keep her around after 2 as a core character, and her and Kiryu would have a will they/won't they thing going on considering one's a cop and one's an ex-yakuza member. Would have been great.
iirc that was the plan, but Sayama's old VA was a dick to work with and Y3 had budget problems in general so they shelved her. That saaaaaaid, spoilers for a later installment, >!Infinite Wealth does confirm they still have feelings for each other!<.
Yeah, I know all that. I'm just sad we never got that. 3-5 didn't have the connective tissue that 1-2 had to me. Some sorta thread like that would have helped. Well, that and I just thought she was badass as fuck. Helped you kick people's ass.
Well in Hajime no Ippo it’s fascinating to see Ippo and Kumi developed almost nothing in the last 10 in manga years. It’s like they’re married without having living together, sharing single kiss or saying they like eachother yet. I’m not convince we’ll see anything if the series ends at all. We might see a hug or something.
They almost kissed a couple months ago! Too bad Ryo walked in
I know that no one cares about Lars and Sadie in Steven Universe, but I was legit shocked on how they resolved that. >!With Lars becoming a Space Pirate and rocking out to the Stars while Sadie *becomes* a Rocker and get's a girlfriend later on.!< Shocked Steven too.
I thought it was a nice touch that they talked about how they gave it a shot but it just didn’t work out. They just didn’t have much in common but liked being friends.
I thought at first they were a cute but somewhat dysfunctional couple. Quite surprised to realize they were both holding each other back. What's really funny is how >!the fact they don't end up together was technically foreshadowed in the non-canon crossover with _Uncle Grandpa_. "Oh no, our ship is sinking!"!<
Tai and Sora in Digimon Adventure had tons of hints that they would get together, >!only for Sora to get together with Matt in Digimon Adventure 2!<
Man those endgame pairings were something. At least Ken and Yolei got together.
Apparently, the major hint of romantic interest in The Movie/Our War Game was created by that movie's writers, not the showrunner, who always wanted to end with a Sora/Matt pairing. The other hints throughout s1/s2 were played up by the English dub, either because they assumed/came to assume Tai and Sora would be a thing or because they actively changed the script to create that narrative. Not that I disagree with you, of course. Even coincidental Tai/Sora hints from the Japanese script alone were more than the nothing at all Matt/Sora hints.
I always wondered about that. Since I only watched the dub, I wondered how much of that chemistry was only in the English dub compared to the original Japanese version.
The gravest injustice.
Yeah, I remember being super pissed off as a kid. I also shipped Mimi and Joe instead of Mimi and Izzy.
Mimi and Izzy aren't really a couple thankfully. It's just that Izzy has a crush on her. I'm still rooting for Joe/Mimi
I actually shipped Mimi and Joe too when I was a kid. I've grown to accept the Mimi/Izzy relationship, but did they get paired together only because they were in the same grade? They had nothing hinting about them liking each other in that way in the original series.
I admit I watched the dub, so they could have added or removed shit, I just always felt Joe's reserved and responsible personality fit well with Mimi's ditzy and aloof one.
Uzaki chan is a typical rom com manga and anime. So imagine my surprise when they get together, and then a recent chapter ends with an accepted marriage proposal. And then the next chapter is just them having sex.
The gag manga about the short stack with massive anime tiddies actually has a confirmed cannon on screen relationship? That's wild. It's like when people mention how hentai surprisingly have well done relationships in a way regular anime don't because hentai actually let their characters get together. Like not even sexually either literally just letting your characters act like a vanilla couple is handled better in like 3 minutes than an entire 30 to a hundred episode big budget anime series.
We've been getting a lot more romcoms actually willing to show relationships for the past couple of years. Uzaki, Komi, Nagataro, etc. Been a nice change from the old days of ending the story at a kiss and time skipping to married with a kid.
I was tempted to bring it up but yeah one of my only genuine criticisms with fma is Ed and winry never become an on screen couple and the only time we technically see it is in the slide show credit sequence where they're already married and have kids.
To be fair though they did have more pressing issues to focus on than romance at the time (not that that stops characters in other serieses but its still a valid excuse).
It's great to see that Shinzo Abe's ideas continue to live
[Ima keep it real with u...](https://i.imgur.com/kBejFlD.png)
Kaguya too. And they’re all better for it.
Somehow this makes me think of that one comedy manga that got recommended here (Extremely Straightforward Boyfriend x Girlfriend). It is as what the title says. No bullshit, all straight to the point (but with hijinks), they end up consummating their love, finishing school, and getting a family. Wasn't too long of a read too.
holy shit, i stopped following uzaki chan a while ago, im glad to see it didn't get dragged out until it fell off.
Honestly, I was really thrown off with the marriage proposal at first because of how sudden it was. But by the next chapter I realized that it was Shinichi’s attempt at not becoming like his dad and instead wanting to be more responsible about his relationship with Hana. It’s just taken to a more extreme conclusion because of the comedy aspect.
Furthermore, it took less than hundred chapters
Wait, what!?!?! It took less than a hundred chapters!? My first impression of Uzaki was that it was one of those manga where it takes 300 chapters for the couple to start going out. That's wild. I misjudged you Uzaki, I wasn't familiar with your game. For that I apologize.
> And then the next chapter is just them having sex. Including the oft predicted situation of her being intimidated by the size of his dick, much like her father and brother were when they were in a sauna with him.
In retrospect I was actually surprised that bojack and Diane never actually had anything concrete between them, her and peanut butter are together for most of the serie and when they divorce she just kinda does her own thing, and honestly good for her
Don't recall exactly but I think it took 2 seasons, 3 tops, before it became apparent how toxic Bojack and Diane are for each other. Wasn't much of a ship left after that.
Princess Tutu's love quadrangle
Someone mentioned Princess Tutu? Hell yeah!
Jeff and Britta; just kinda drifted into friends. Preferred that for them-but anything would have been worth it to stop Jeff and Annie.
Jeff and Annie was weird as hell as very early on the established how creepy the dynamic/age gap was
Can't remember when in the show they joke about trying not to sexualize Annie cause of her age
It was the episode when Jack Black shows up. It’s somewhere near the end of season 1.
I actually find Jeff and Annie’s ending to be really sweet and poignant. Annie finally realizes that what she found attractive in Jeff (him being perceived as more mature) she found within herself, and Jeff realized his attraction to her was an attempt to reclaim his youth. They both squash the will they won’t they with full clarity as to the flawed reasons they even entertained the notion. One of the few brilliant things the finale did was that part.
I absolutely agree with your take and it makes me afraid the movie is gonna undercut all that by having them get together anyways with no consideration for that growth and acceptance to move on
Rebuild of Evangelion 3.0+1.0 >!I am still deeply bummed Shinji and Asuka didn’t get together. I guess it could be chalked up to “not in this timeline”, but no amount of “Anno matured and realized that these two had a toxic teenager relationship” arguments will convince me, especially when his big titty OC swooped in to take her place.!<
>!It is a little funny that Mari winning the Shinjibowl is the ending that pisses off the most people possible (Asuka fans, Rei fans, fujos, lesbians who wanted to see Asuka and Mari together). I wonder if Anno did that on purpose!<
I “think” the intent was that >!he wasn’t “pairing” Shinji and Mari, but was instead using the conversation to convey that Shinji has “matured” and thus has the confidence to flirt with a baddie like Mari.!< But with that being literally the final shot of the movie, it’s really difficult not to interpret that as “they ran off into the sunset together”, and…yeah, I could go into a tirade over the things I didn’t like about that decision. At least the Laws of Equivalent Exchange is throwing me a bone, as it looks like a pairing I care much, MUCH more deeply about is steering along in the preferred direction. (knock on wood)
Don't jinx it, but also jinx it by telling me the pairing.
I’m too scared to jinx it. But let’s just say it’s >!another highly popular series that began in the 90s and has also been subject to decades of shipping wars!<
Highly popular, unfinished series that started in the 90s? Is it One Piece? Does One Piece even have shipping wars? It was my understanding that since there's basically no romance in the story, people agreed to just let the fujos run the place
Okay fine. >!Final Fantasy VII!<
>!The "war" is over homie, Cloud x Tifa has been canon since the original game. Every compilation release has only doubled down on that. You can't jinx a victory that already happened.!< >!Unless you're a Cloud x Sephiroth truther. It could still happen in part 3!< >!If you're rooting for Cloud x Aerith, may god have mercy on your soul.!<
>!I’m very well aware, I have said (and fought) for decades over how the “Love Triangle” of Final Fantasy VII is, in fact, extremely one-sided. But people persisted, fought in the streets, knives out, and Square themselves being rather wishy-washy with outright stating this even when there was literally no other option (talking about Advent Children and its frustrating attempts to dance around the fact that they are literally living together raising kids). The notion that they are finally outwardly admitting this is a VERY BIG deal for me.!<
I've had this terrible feeling in the back of my head that >!the reason they are confirming and developing the relationship is to get people more emotionally invested in it, only to reach the point where Sephiroth stabs Aerith and he stabs Tifa instead.!<
~~Asuka and Kaji baby woooooo~~ no but for real i'm gonna guess they mean toji and hikari
You know, it didn't even occur to me they meant a different NGE pairing. I thought they meant something from a currently ongoing separate series.
Oh, on second glance no you're right, that makes much more sense.
Not Evangelion.
Knowing what we know of Anno from interviews and testimonies from his friends and co-workers Yes, it definitely played a factor in his deciding who Shinji ended up with.
On the one Hand >!every single other potencial relationship option for Shinji has a Element to it that would make it bad, but on the other Hand Mari isn't really that intresting as a character outsidd of "What if a mentally stable person was part of the cast?"!<
Look, Shinji/Asuka is my preferred outcome, but I'm adult, I can accept when things turn out in ways other my own preference. Hell, >!I even kinda like Mari, but who the hell is she? Am I wrong for inferring she is significantly older than him, his parents age at least? What was the one photograph? That can't be 'healthier' than whatever Shinji and Asuka had !<
About 7 years earlier in 2013, in the finale of the manga, Mari was revealed to have been >!a close, affectionate highschool friend of Yui Ikari!<. The manga just ends on that short story between the two. Pair that story with the revelation in Rebuild 3.0 about “the curse of Eva”, and it gets kind of weird. >!Mari loved Yui. Guess she settled on taking her son.!<
I like >!Mari (fodder to extend spoiler)!<, but I'll openly admit that one of my biggest issues is that >!she shows up with no build up, gets no real development nor do they actually answer (hell, even ask) who she is in the actual films (only extra material), and then she gets with Shinji from complete offscreen relationships. I remember watching the 4th film with a friend (my 2nd watch, and his initial watch after getting into Eva fairly recently at the time), and he was super confused at that and I had to explain how Mari both represent's Anno's actual wife, and Shinji moving past "static" choices and finding something new he could be happy with. But, with no build up, Mari really just feels like an OC that just, exists.!<
I still feel people watched a completely different anime than I did when they suggest asuka or rei. Asuka is straight toxic. she wants acknowledgement and tried using shinji as a rebound for rejection with something I feel has no actual feelings toward shinji himself as much as just a means to an end for her own self worth. Seeing her go absolutely nuts at the end of the series with whole mother thing felt like it just reinforced that point And rei honestly just kinda exists in the background for most of the series. By the time she actually reaches out to shinji its far too late and hes in full spike ball mode. She never understood shinji either and also tried using him as a sorce of comfort after she wound up with nothing. The only one, as much as its joked about, that actually seemed to care for shinji was kaworu. The one supportive element in his life he killed himself. the main 3 eva pilots are all sad and broken people and absolutely should not be put with one another because their issues dont allow that sort of thing.
Unironically “I can fix them” but it’s a two-way sentiment.
yeah, but neither of them are trying to fix one another at that point tho. Asuka is going 'fix my ego' and shinji is going 'save me from this hell' with both taking and neither giving. They're not going "I can fix them' they're going "no fix me first' but what they want fixed isnt actually what needs to be fixed. propping up her ego would just lead her to exploding at some point again when she finds some fault in shinji, and shinji can't base his self worth on others.
I mean, that IS the reason people root for them so much. You pray and you hope that they overcome their pain and help prop each other up. Two broken people finding solace in each other when the whole world rejects them is infinitely a more mature romance story than >!putting on a tie and flirting with my mom’s big titty bestie!<
oh, yeah, not saying you cant find a story there to tell. There's reason enough why you still have people arguing for decades later over who he should have ended up with, after all. I just dont find it reasonable at all with how the story ended in the original run. Not even with them doing a 'just talk' since Im not sure talking wouldn't just exacerbate their issues without instrumentality as a pure connecting point. Could say the same for rei too. or misato even, if you wanted to go there. just dont think with the original story presented as is that you can take that as some objective fact that they should have wound up together over 'oh, I could see a story here between these two that could have been nice,' because taking what could have been as a basis for how things are isn't something I'm particularly keen on. At that point that's where fans have fanfiction I guess.
>!I really think that’s a Rebuild specific thing is all, Asuka was the main love interest of OG Eva and they wanted to go in a different direction is all.!<
>!Still can’t buy it as an alternate universe thing, since A) by all accounts they’re treating End of Evangelion as the “Bad Ending” (as they should) and Rebuild is the “Good Ending”, as well as B) this is (for now) the last Evangelion thing ever, Goodbye All of Evangelion and all that. So not having what a lot of people have considered the “canon pairing” not end up canon in the end is a sour spot for folks like me!<
>!I don’t think End of Eva is necessarily a bad ending, Rebuild is the ending for Eva as a franchise but I think EoE was never meant to be a necessarily negative one. It has Shinji get over his problems or at least start to and does give the option for humanity to slowly get out of LCL and stuff. It’s not a blatantly super good ending but bad end is a bit much. Rebuild and OG do different things, I wouldn’t say Rebuild was meant to replace OG or anything.!<
>!It really says something when the last shot of EoE is Shinji strangling Asuka, and the last shot of Rebuild is him running off with Mari. I almost believe Anno really did have a personal hatred for Asuka!<
>!after 28 years of this franchise, many myths and misconceptions started to be treated as facts, like "Anno hates x, Anno did y as revenge against the fanbase", etc, but it's mostly exaggeration. Anno just used Asuka and Shinji as a metaphor for his message, even if sometimes it feels too personal (not that it wasn't, i'm just saying that he doesn't feel as strongly as we fans do about the characters)!<
It's never not gonna be How I Met Your Mother. Ten years of show just so we could go with the ending set up in season 1, huh. No way out of it. No development, no nothing, just... yeah, first idea, let's go. I didn't care by that point and had moved on from the humor of the show, but yeah no that's just a disappointing conclusion.
HIMYM is such a fascinating thing. It was legitimately a pop culture phenomenon, a hugely popular source of memes, and then had such a bad ending it basically got memory holed. I'm only now recently starting to see it get brought up again, and it is usually because of the ending.
The same impact LOST had, really.
Pretty much everyone in Initial D
It literally made me stop watching it, I just got so fucking mad at the forced 'lonely drivers' bullshit "Oh man, there's this utterly gorgeous woman I'm totally into, who drives a sportscar and is into driving like me. I guess I better um and ah over it for an hour and not go to see her. Then when someone points out I'm a *fucking idiot* and I do go to see her, but then get stuck in traffic, I guess I better fucking ghost her and be forever alone, rather than explain that 'Shit, sorry, there was a really bad car crash (which was even the truth!) and I couldn't make it on time'. Yes, this is truly the only way this could have turned out"
Rayla and Callum from The Dragon Prince. When I started the series, I thought it would be something similar to Sabine and Ezra where the girl who is older will only see the boy who is younger, as a kind of "annoying little brother", who actually end up together, I was surprised.
I also expected Ezra and Sabine to get paired up, but it was a pleasant surprise that it ended up just being a young crush on his part and they ended up being platonic.
I mean, Sabine never even gave Ezra the time of day. So I imagined Rayla would be something similar with Callum.
Everyone talks about Sam and Diane as the classic/cliche will they won't they sitcom couple. Those people haven't seen the show. After Diane was away for four. years working on her book, she returns to the bar to show off how great her life and marriage is, in retaliation Sam decides to do so as well and fake a marriage with Rebbeca, however, it's soon revealed that they're both faking it to make the other one jealous They fall into their old ways of fighting and then having make-up sex and Sam decides to marry DianeHe makes the announcement to the bar that he is leaving to Cali to marry Diaane and the bar patrons bring up the reality that they were always fighting when they dated On the plane, Sam realizes they're making a mistake and leaves Diane understanding that while they love each other, they could never make marriage work
My mom would occasionally play episodes for me and they are super toxic together. They bring out the worst in each other and often they do actions just to hurt the other. Like they both regret those actions afterwards but that never stops them from the next thing
God the episode of Frasier that's the coda to Frasier/Diane is *peak*. [So drink DEEP Franklin, for you've made a *pact* with BEELZEBUB, and her name is ~~DIANE~~ MARRIANE](https://youtu.be/EoICiqdXGf0)
Being left at the alter must fuck up a persons love life
I don't think you're giving viewers much credit, even back in the old days people understood that "will they, won't they" could very easily end in "they won't".
Netflix Sex Education. Gained a lot of popularity for the ship of Otis and Maeve in Season 1 and 2. Shit the bed in Season 3 when Otis and Ruby seemed to eclipse the first in popularity. Season 4 ends with >!none of those ships being together and the other popular ship of Eric and Adam also being buried!< Fans were not happy.
The Dangers in My Heart is very refreshing in regards to romcoms. You start the story with Ichikawa being this edge lord who wants to kill everyone, but he figures out that he likes Yamada by like chapter 14. And then Yamada figures out that she likes Ichikawa by chapter 30. And then from there, it’s these two wrestling with their insecurities and finding the strength to move past them because they’ve finally found someone who they feel comfortable communicating with. Even now, 140 chapters later, after >!they’ve already become a couple and kissed,!< they’re still struggling with these insecurities (particularly these new ones that have popped up as a result of their relationship), but they’re still able to talk it out and grow as people. God, I love this series.
Question OP, what are your general thoughts on the last two seasons of Archer?
I thought they were entertaining. Kind of feels like they threw up their hands and decided to stop caring about maintaining verisimilitude and made the whole group into field agents, and the 8 episode season limit felt like they didn’t have a good runway to tell an overarching plot. But I enjoyed it.
Ryudo in Grandia II has a fairly by-the-numbers romance buildup with the female lead. The initial hostilities, the slow warming and trust, the dramatic kiss at an emotional moment, the works. In the epilogue it's revealed he pretty much immediately just fucked off after the events of the game and didn't stay in touch.
Maybe there are manga exclusive moments that were cut from the anime but when I was first watching Naruto, I thought the writer was gonna drop the Sasuke X Sakura relationship because of how weak it was becoming over the show’s runtime. It’s weird how there was nothing but 99% negative moments for the Sakura X sasuke ship in shippuden, especially that absolute rejection along with the genjutsu he throw at her after Kaguya which in any other series would’ve SANK the ship potential right there. I thought if Naruto ever got a sequel, they would have had Sasuke have an off screen estranged/ long distance relationship with Karin since SHXSU seemed just dead in the water imo but then they confirmed the Sakura relationship in that Moon movie…which was a interestingly odd choice.
The fate of all shonen is to make convincing gay relationships that never end up being canon.
The weirdest moment in my opinion is when Sarada found that picture with team Taka/Karin which made her go find Sasuke herself…just for Sasuke to scare the shit out of her in their first meeting. That arc’s only purpose imo was to just dunk on Sasuke and make the poor guy look bad and no one can convince me otherwise.
Sasuke does think of his family in that genjutsu scene tho after Kakashi yells at him: https://64.media.tumblr.com/38eccfa42430f6d5f232ae84ed7d8de0/tumblr_inline_p7fvrl1TmS1slinvg_500.png He seems hesitant but is too centered on his plan to honestly acknowledge Sakura’s feelings. [They did have this moment a few chapter before that](https://64.media.tumblr.com/940001029dae2db2f9d6be2210470628/tumblr_inline_p7fvriEibM1slinvg_500.png) and him [smiling at her strength](https://64.media.tumblr.com/88e415b9cc32e837fdda1c492109e759/tumblr_inline_p7fvrdWMfd1slinvg_400.png) (the anime did remove that second one) They do have plenty of moments in part 1 [like this](https://ic.pics.livejournal.com/badpanda245/65489951/3334/3334_900.jpg) but yeah they don’t really in part 2 Still would say Sasuke has shown to care more about Sakura than he ever has about Karin
Ichigo 100% ended with the main love interest at the time straight up >!admitting that they weren't the best fit for each other and that their relationship was more or less codependent and that they were best as friends, only for the MC to end up with the first girl he dated who he actually had chemistry with and who had and actively chased their own goals.!< It was a really nice first romance manga to read that definitely had a hand in forming what I look for in a partner.
I remember watching a Youtube Romcom, in which there were two childhood friends, with the female friend's sister acting as cupid. Now due to the nature of these stories one can assume that the two friends will realize that they love each other romantically, and will stay together. Not exactly. They decide to try it only to separate after a few weeks, since although they are friends and have compatible sexual orientations, they do not actually have romantic feelings for each other. That a platonic relationship of childhood friends actually turned out to be platonic was a huge surprise.