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Fry and Leela (Futurama)
One of the reasons why I got hooked into Futurama was the on-again, off-again relationship with Fry and Leela. Fry is a delivery boy from the 20th century who is dim-witted and immature, but has a good heart. Leela is the captain of the Planet Express ship who is skilled with martial arts, but has a compassionate and mature personality. In a way, they're kind of the opposite of each other.
Throughout the show, apart from constantly asking her out on dates (often being rejected), Fry does whatever he can to win Leela's heart such as rearranging the stars to spell out "I Love You, Leela" (before they imploded), protecting her from a space bee, and even trading hands with the Robot Devil in order to impress her with his Holophonor skills. The love is often not reciprocated, often leaving Fry with but a glimmer of hope. They have had relationships with other people in the show, but they never really work out and often come back to each other.
I sometimes thought I was like Fry since I've been in somewhat of a similar situation, but without the hilarious antics. When Fry feels down about not winning Leela's heart, I feel the same way, too. But if he can through all that trouble and succeed in the end, then there is hope for all the single guys.
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Sly and Carmelita (Sly Cooper series)
When a friend of mine introduced me to the Sly Cooper series in 2005, the relationship between Sly and Carmelita immediately drew me in. Sly, being a thief, is always on the run from Carmelita, an inspector at Interpol, but in the meantime, he can't help but engage in flirty chit-chat with her. He even grows an attachment to her, especially when in Sly 2, he narrates that she is the reason why all the thieving is so much fun, kind of like Batman and the Joker.
At the end of Sly 3. he fakes having lost his memory and Carmelita takes advantage of it by telling him he was her partner and developed a romantic relationship afterwards. It didn't last long when in Thieves in Time, she discovers that he lied to her and has been ignoring him, despite forming an alliance with the Cooper gang in order to stop Le Paradox from rewriting history.
The romance is quite unusual, yet unique, at least in my eyes, since Carmelita serves as foil to Sly (she's a cop, and he's a thief) and they both have feelings for each other. It's one of those aspects that made a Sly Cooper fan to this day, and if Sanzaru Games ever develops Sly 5 in the future, I would always look forward to the progression of the Sly/Carmelita romance.
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Pat and Tiffany (Silver Linings Playbook)
Pat is a bipolar guy who recently gets out of a mental institution and he hopes to reconcile with his wife after a violent episode when he caught her cheating on him. Tiffany suffers from depression due to the loss of her husband and was recently fired from her job after having sex with other employees.
They become good friends, despite a bit of a bumpy start, and Pat decides to participate in a dance competition with her, hoping he can reunite with his wife by doing a nice thing for someone. This, however, has him barely spending time with his family who want him to watch football with them. In addition, he starts to have second thoughts about getting back together with his wife, and is attracted to Tiffany.
Even if you're not bipolar, you can still relate to them since they both face issues such as heartache, anger, family problems and the like. As well as that, they have some really good chemistry together. The film manages to make their interactions hilarious, but at the same time, very serious when it needs to be. If you haven't seen Silver Linings Playbook, I say check it out. It's tied with The Perks of Being a Wallflower as my favorite film of 2012 (EDIT: not anymore, but close).
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The Doctor and Rose Tyler (Doctor Who)
In the first season, the relationship between the Ninth Doctor and Rose was kind of like a father looking out for his daughter: he tells her to stay put, but she sometimes disobeys. When the Doctor regenerated into his tenth incarnation, the relationship intensified as they began to have feelings for each other. In a way, they were inseparable; Rose was pretty much the Doctor's equal.
When they parted ways at the end of the Series 2 (a really heartbreaking scene, by the way), the Doctor was pained when he thought of her, something I can relate to, though he claims that her name "keeps [him] fighting". Even when Martha Jones became smitten with him, he kept thinking about Rose, making the love unrequited, hence why she left him at the end of Series 3.
The Doctor eventually reunites with Rose in the Series 4 finale, and when they came running after each other, I was full of joy. Want to know my thoughts on their resolution? To those who watched it, I'm okay with it.
The Doctor's had other love interests afterwards including Joan Redfern (when he disguised himself as a human) and River Song, but the romance with Rose was the most believable. She was even the last person he said good-bye to before regenerating into his eleventh incarnation, which only shows how powerful the love story is.
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Adele and Emma (Blue is the Warmest Color)
For the sake of variety, I've decided to include a same-sex couple, and a very mesmerizing one at that. Adele begins to question her sexual identity until a friend takes her to a gay bar one night. There, she meets a blue-haired art graduate named Emma and became close friends afterward. Adele's friends, on the other hand, did not take kindly to her hanging out with a lesbian. Regardless, she confesses her love to Emma and they begin their romantic relationship.
At first they seemed really happy with each other, but then as time went on, it starts to deteriorate, and Adele starts to wonder what she wants out of life. Surprisingly enough, homosexuality was not the main focus; the relationship is basically one stage for her coming of age. Whether you are straight, gay, or bisexual, we all face obstacles growing up, hence why the audience was able to relate to her. It's a realistic, psychological and somewhat tragic romance that kept me wondering where it could go, hence why I placed the movie at number 1 on my Top 7 Films from last year. And speaking of films from 2013...
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Theodore and Samantha (Her)
You might think this is an odd choice and in a way, it is. Theodore is a lonely man who writes personal letters for people who can't express feelings (a recurring theme in the movie). Noticing that his marriage is failing, he purchases an operating system who takes on a female persona, calling herself Samantha, and he becomes fascinated by her ability to learn and grow psychologically. He basically starts talking to her more than any other person. The one problem is that he cannot see or touch her; only hear her.
It may come off as strange, but you look past all that and, as Doug Walker would describe it, it's "a perfect Rorschach test of a romance". It speaks a lot about the evolution of technology and explores what it means to be human. It was so well done, yet I regret not adding it on my list of favorite films of 2013 (I saw it afterwards) because I would have definitely added it as my runner-up of the year.
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Craig and Raina (Blankets)
Thank you, Gexup, for introducing me to this breathtaking masterpiece known as Blankets. What else can be added with what he already said? It's a romance that you quickly connect with (it's an autobiography, after all) because of how much the reader is emotionally invested in the story.
Craig was a bullied kid raised by strict, Christian parents. He believed that everyone but him was blessed with social skills and was really lonely. That is, until he met Raina at church camp and fell in love with her as they sent each other letters. He even got the opportunity to visit her for two weeks, since Raina's parents were getting a divorce and that's where I'm going to stop in order to avoid spoilers. I'm just going to say that when Craig visits Raina, I never wanted to put the book down until I actually finished it. That's how great it was.
Craig Thompson has recently become one of my many inspirations in making a compelling love story that we don't see much in other media anymore. He manages to be really honest and did not hold anything back while telling the tale of his first love. Blankets was such a magical and mesmerizing experience that I finished my fourth read-through in preparation for this list. Whenever I feel like reading it again, I would always head to my local library, rent it, head home, and read it without stopping just to experience it once more.
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And those are my favorite couples. Feel free to name your favorite couples in the comments below or in the It's Tail Time Forums. In the meantime, I wish you all a Happy Valentine's Day!
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