Favorite Couple(s) in Fiction

Well, seeing as how February is more or less marked as the month of love, I figured I would partake in this horrendously Hallmark-ed holiday month by covering some love-ly topics this month, such as today's topic, a ship's program falling in love with a human, and a post I wrote almost a year ago that I'll re-post. Shameless laziness.

And that's pretty much it. If you're like me, February is only the month of love because, you know, it's a nice gimmick. Normally I wouldn't celebrate it, but, for my readers...I'll do three posts about it then pretend it never happened.

This is probably the most "love"ish of all the posts I'll have. Even the second romance post won't be like this, because it might be me maybe or maybe not hating on romance in books nowadays...maybe, who knows? Come back in two weeks and find out.

Anyway, let's get into it. "Shipping" has become a staple part of most television series, or just series in general, as of late. Blame Tumblr. It seems that with every show, there is another "ship" popping up, whether it be a joke or not. And hey, sometimes if it is a joke, those fans will be pleasantly surprised at the end of the series, while others will will be angry and say the show sucked because of one pretty interesting move on the creator's part.

By the way you should watch The Legend of Korra, no relation to that aforementioned show, though.

Personally, I don't necessarily "ship" characters. I just have my preferences, and so, I'm here to talk about who my favorite couples are. And all of the couples here are, to my knowledge, together. Not on-again-off again. If there were to be an exception, it would be the Amazing Spider-Man film versions of Peter Parker and Gwen Stacey. While that did drag a little in the second film, they had fantastic on-screen chemistry and their relationship was very believable. It was nice to see a super-hero couple that didn't break up because someone regained their memory halfway through a film.

Also, no "Olicity" will not be on this list, because I do not like Olicity. Hate me if you want, but I have never seen Oliver and Felicity being together as a good move. Maybe when Oliver gets older and prepares to settle down I would want him to settle down, but as it is, Oliver is too unstable a person and I just never saw Felicity as being able to click with him. Felicity belongs more with Barry or Ray. Their personalities mesh way better and she would lead a better life should she live with them. And I will stick by that.

One of the more off-the-wall couples I found myself enjoying a lot was Kylar and Elene in the "Night Angel" trilogy (haven't mentioned that series in a while, the return is welcomed). It wasn't that they showed off love the best way (outside of, well, you know) but in such a dark world where everyone was always gloomy and basically their only out was to kill someone, watching them get away from it all at the beginning of the second book and try to find each other is a harrowing tale because you really want to see them together.

Elene was basically the symbol of goodness in the world. I'm sure she did a few bad things over the course of the story, but, for my money, I can't really remember anything. She was always Kylar's physical symbol of salvation from escaping the life of a wetboy. Kylar wanted to be a hero, not a killer, but to be a hero in this world meant that they had to be the same thing sometimes. Brent Weeks managed to convey a great longing that the two felt for each other even when they'd only just met after so many years. It was a strong bond that, as a reader, I wanted to see constantly fulfilled. I felt at peace when they were together, I wasn't entirely worried about the workings of the world around them (except, the stuff with Logan, that was just nasty).

Oddly enough, I can't really think of any big super-hero couples from the comic books that I really, really like. The staples are cool, like Superman and Lois Lane (not Supes and Wonder Woman), but nothing jumps out at me.

As far as anime goes, two of my better favored couples lie in there. From Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's I really liked the budding relationship between Yusei and Akiza. I'm disappointed that the characters were not given closure about how they really feel about each other, but I think it was left up to the viewer's interpretation. And I interpret that they were together. I mean, they were technically dating in a few episodes, so, I think it's real.

I liked their dynamic because of how they worked off of each other. Yusei practically saved Akiza's life and those around her multiple times throughout the series and in return, Akiza would give it her all in order to stand up for Yusei and the rest of the Signer Dragons, so as to mirror how Yusei would fight. Plus, they were both equally angsty at times, how can they not belong with one another?

But my favorite couple that I've ever watched, read about, or whatever, has to be Kirito and Asuna. I mean, I was pulling for those two throughout the entirety of the show. Their overtly romantic scenes never bothered me because I longed so much for them during the Aincrad arc.

It seemed that they were made for each other. It seemed like what Asuna said about her real reason for going in the game was to find Kirito was actually a predestined event. Everything they did, they did to help each other. Kirito taught Asuna what it was to live, and Asuna taught Kirito what it meant to fight for those who love you and those you love. Even during the arcs where one or the other wasn't in the forefront, they always seemed to be thinking of each other and using each other's love for one another to live another day, to win the battle. You can tell that they are always there for each other, you can tell that they live for one another.

Perhaps their relationship worked so well at first because of the circumstances--being trapped in a death game, you know, kind of sucks--so there was always this overwhelming of finding a partner and surviving together. Thus, they were forced to sort of reveal who they really were to one another, eventually falling in love realizing that they were perfect for one another in order to live and to survive. It was those feelings that have carried over into real life. Plus, I mean, they have a virtual daughter (ish) to care for!

So, those are my favorite couples. A bit of a shorter post, I know (how horrible), but I'm not really a guy for romance. Hope you enjoyed this little pickings though. Kinda out there, and, I'm sure I've gained scorn from Arrow watchers that passionately ship Olicity.


If you wanna stay up to date on when I post, be sure to follow me on Twitter @seanovan13 and on Instagram @seanovan10. Thanks for reading!

And if you're also interested in reading more about SAO, I'm doing daily episodic reviews of the show. Currently I'm on Episode 8 of Season 2. See you then!