It's Only the End if You Want it to Be

“It’s only the end if you want it to be.”

Dedicated to DC’s unending determination to kill all the things I love.

fragileicicle:

luanna255:

unorigelnal:

luanna255:

wonderarity:

There would’ve been more couples…but I got lazy.

Ohmygosh, squeeeeee. <3

ALL the best couples. Except Dick/Babs of course but you can’t have everything.

The saddest thing though is how many of these couples are broken up, completely gone, and/or have had their history messed with in the DCnU. I think Arthur and Mera might just be the only ones who are still together and happy. (Yeah, Bruce and Selina technically still have some sort of thing going on, but their dynamic has been severely messed with and so much of the relationship development has been retconned.) So sad. :-(

Ah well, hopefully at least some of them will be back soon.

Didn’t you hear? Marriage and children ages characters so much that the younger demographic can’t identify with them. Everyone needs to be young and pretty and (relatively) available.

As you can tell, I’m totally not bitter about the major loss of relationships in the New 52.

I know we need to give the reboot a chance. I know there’s a chance some of them will come back (except for those who no longer exist; thanks, DC). I know it’s probably overreacting to get upset about all the canon we lost.

But… I miss this. I miss these guys and how sweet they were. I miss looking at them and thinking maybe I could have the same thing (sans the major plot angst a lot of them got). I miss the hope, you know?

I know EXACTLY what you mean. I don’t understand why there’s this idea that people won’t find committed love stories appealing or “cool” enough. And it’s not just the romantic love stories, either. So many of the classic friendships and families have been retconned and written out, too. But to me, those strong, powerful, incredibly loving relationships - whether romantic, platonic, or familial - THOSE were what made the DCU such an incredible place. I don’t know who the heck decided it would be better if all the heroes were alone, but they made a vital error. They took the love out of the DCU (not totally, but to a large degree) and that was the heart and soul. It made these characters human and compelling.

And you know, the idea that a “younger audience” won’t find happily married/committed couples appealing is bonkers. There’s a reason that Disney-type fairytale couples are marketed towards kids. Kids like having a couple to love and hold up as their romantic ideal. But, you know, once you get past a certain age, the whole Cinderella-and-Prince-Charming, instant-love-at-first-sight cliche stops seeming so romantic anymore. You start seeing why that isn’t a very realistic ideal to look up to. And that’s when most older kids find a new couple to be their fairytale. A couple like Lois & Clark, or Wally & Linda, or Barda & Scott. A couple who married and got their “happy ending”, but for whom marriage WASN’T the end. Who had a relationship based on trust and mutual respect and supporting each other through thick and thin. Maybe not all teenagers, but I know a LOT of teens who WANT to read about committed, realistic couples like that and believe that love like that is possible. Being young doesn’t mean having a shallow definition of love.

Not all of these couples were married, true. But they all had a TON of history, and they all had a powerful bond based on loving and supporting each other through the good and the bad. That is something to look up to and aspire to, and it’s something DC fans young AND old enjoyed reading about. And you know, it’s not about whether you ship each and every one of these couples. It’s about the fact that that CONCEPT, that was worth keeping and preserving in the DCU. And I really hate that that kind of love is almost completely gone.

Maybe DC is just resetting the relationships (not erasing) so they can re-tell it again, and bring back the spark or chemistry this couple once had. I know most people would rather read about how a couple gets together than a married/domestic life (which, isn’t too exciting to young readers I have to admit). I’m pretty sure that Clark and Lois will get back together, but slowly and eventually though. They probably wanted to explore some relationship plots with those two that can’t be done if they’re still married. Yeah I know I’m being an apologist here, but I kind of understand where DC’s marketing decisions are coming from…

Now, if we’re talking about those characters who have disappeared/put-into-limbo in the reboot instead, hence having little to no chance of them getting back together with their significant-other/soulmate……… *cracks knuckles*

I wasn’t aware that Clark & Lois or any of these couples had lost their spark and needed to have it brought back? IDK, this is a personal opinion, but I always thought the happily married couples like Lois & Clark and Wally & Linda had some of the best chemistry among the DC couples. I think it’s kind of silly to assume that couples are only interesting to read about or only have chemistry before they actually get together.

Like, look at the kisses here. To me, a kiss isn’t just about a kiss. It’s also about what’s BEHIND that kiss. I don’t just look at these moments and think “Oh, look, two people are kissing, that’s hot”. I look and see how overjoyed Tim was when he found out Steph was alive. I look and see Bruce finally letting his walls down and taking the first step towards having an actual relationship with Selina. I see Raven being brave enough to stop hiding from her emotions for Gar. I’m not sure I’m explaining this well, but what I’m trying to say is, when these couples interacted, it had meaning because the weight of their history was behind it. I watched them interact and I knew exactly what they meant to each other, and what they had been through together to get there. That did not make them LESS interesting to me. It made them MORE.

The idea that young people won’t like reading about married couples is also, IMO, flawed. That may be true for SOME younger readers, but certainly not all. Marriage doesn’t have to mean “boring domesticity”. Many young people dream of being married themselves someday. You don’t think they find it compelling or interesting to read about a happily married couple who are truly in love, who are still romantic and flirtatious and sexy (because married couples can be and are ALL of those things) but who are also each others partners and support systems through all the crazy journeys life puts them on? On the contrary, I think many teens and young adults want to read about couples EXACTLY like that, and I think having couples like that sent a powerful message.

Falling-in-love stories are great, it’s true. But they are not the ONLY stories to tell. Relationships continue to be exciting and compelling and interesting after a couple gets married or commits to each other, too. Just as there are stories you can’t tell with a married couple, there are also stories which are ONLY possible with a married couple. And those stories don’t have to be “boring”, those stories can be every bit as exciting, romantic, funny, sweet, adorable, or heartrending as ANY falling-in-love story.

I understand DC’s temptation to want to hit the reset button and tell the stories over, I truly do. But so much of the history that they retconned was beautiful and worth preserving intact, and what they replaced it with (in the cases that they didn’t simply get rid of it entirely) is not worth the change. It took many of these couples DECADES to get where they were. Those love stories were already amazing and they didn’t need to be re-told, and honestly in DC’s current mindset I doubt they are willing to invest the time necessary to develop those relationships again. All that erasing the history does is make everything seem meaningless. Why should I care about watching ANY couple fall in love if their relationship might just be erased the next time DC has a Crisis? What is any of it really worth, then? The exciting thing about watching couples fall in love is seeing the development, watching the relationship move forward and the bond grow deeper. When all of that is suddenly magically erased, it just makes the whole thing seem shallow and worthless.

DC can and should continue to tell stories about couples falling in love for the first time. But there are always new couples to tell those stories with. There was no need to break up or get rid of every iconic couple they had just for the chance to re-tell stories that didn’t need re-telling (and if they WERE going to do that, they could have at least done a better re-telling than they’re doing so far).

I understand DC’s marketing decisions too. But I think DC’s marketing decisions are STUPID. They are alienating the fans they already had, who cared about the history. And that is a crucial demographic. It’s not just about losing those readers themselves, it’s about the fact that those readers will no longer recommend these comics to their friends, their significant others, their family members, etc. That cuts off a large portion of potential readers, and I can’t imagine it’s really doing DC any favors.

I’m not trying to be a jerk here, but… I DO understand DC’s thinking, I just think that their thought process is seriously flawed.

wonderarity:

There would’ve been more couples…but I got lazy.

Ohmygosh, squeeeeee. <3

ALL the best couples. Except Dick/Babs of course but you can’t have everything.

The saddest thing though is how many of these couples are broken up, completely gone, and/or have had their history messed with in the DCnU. I think Arthur and Mera might just be the only ones who are still together and happy. (Yeah, Bruce and Selina technically still have some sort of thing going on, but their dynamic has been severely messed with and so much of the relationship development has been retconned.) So sad. :-(

Ah well, hopefully at least some of them will be back soon.