The countdown is on. *6* more days and
It hasn't escaped my notice that the person enjoying these blog bits most is... ME. It reminds me of the scenes that you write in your novel that are purely self-indulgent drivel. At the time, you are sure it is necessary to the story, and that everyone will love it as you do. Later, with some perspective, you recognize it for what it is. I suppose that Later Is Here, but it's only six more days and it is my blog. If even a few of you watch a clip that pulls at your heartstrings and helps put you in the mood for February 14... well, it is not a wasted exercise.
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I am tagging all of these Love Is In The Air (even though the hop is over) and the following is a list of all the posts with links, so that you can watch any of your favorites that you missed.
Back at the beginning of this thing I asked YOU to share what you think are the most romantic moments on the big and small screen. Thank you to everyone who has commented with your favorite romantic scenes. I have enjoyed watching them on YouTube. I no longer have time to post them in this series, but I *might* include them on the HERE'S TO YOU post;)
Speaking of comments, some of your comments crack me up! Once I ran all movies and several of you indicated you'd never seen those TV shows. Hahahaha. I realize I must be more clear about what I am posting, since I am doing both.
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The Movie, What Dreams May Come, is based on the novel of the same name by Richard Matheson. Chris Nielsen (Robin Williams) marries Annie Collins (Annabella Sciorra) and they have an idyllic life until their children are killed in a car crash. They come close to divorcing over their grief, but find a way to cope. Chris is killed in a car accident leaving Annie alone. He watches her from heaven,but cannot ease her suffering. She commits suicide and ends up in hell. Chris sets off on a mission to reach his wife in the afterlife. He finds her in this scene. While I find it horribly sad, it is also unbearably sweet. "Thank you for every kindness."
Roll the footage...
When I addressed the device of "love triangles" on the Lost post (see above, if you missed it), I was hoping for your ideas about what makes for a good love triangle, even if you didn't watch that show. It wasn't the first time I explored love triangles (see Felicity, also above), though I didn't come out and ask you what makes them good in that one. This time, I am going to come out and ask: what aspects of the writing make a love triangle successful???
With that in mind, I am going to throw one more scene at you featuring one half of a love triangle. This is from a TV Show. What I want you to ask yourself when you watch this scene is this: Based on this scene alone, would you suspect that the female is conflicted? And when I say "conflicted" I mean that she also has feelings for another guy? (BTW, these are more couples that are so popular that they have morphed names. Damon and Elena go by Delena. The not pictured couple (Stefan and Elena) go by Stelena.)
Take it away... Delena:
To kick off this discussion about what makes a love triangle successful, I am going to tell you what I think. I hope that you will add your two cents. In order for the love triangle to work the person in the middle has to love both of the other parties. Of course, eventually necessity dictates that the person make a choice. But, what keeps it all going forward is the fact that the person always remains (to a degree) conflicted. Please feel free to respond with fictional and/or real life cases of successful love triangles and what ingredients made them that way. Go...
Ultimately none of them are successful because the person has to choose, right?
ReplyDelete(Just giving you a bad time!)
I'm not a big fan of love triangles. How does one get stuck in such a position, anyway? I can see a 'like' triangle but not a love triangle.
Very first thing I thought of was Duckie and whatshername on Pretty In Pink, because I just read an article yesterday that said in the original, the two got together but audiences booed it so they changed the ending. Which was good, because that would've been AWFUL if they'd gotten together.
ReplyDeleteWhat makes a great love triangle is that it's doomed, in some way. Jack and Kate and Sawyer (I assume that's the Lost one, as I missed that post and haven't gone back to read it yet) and Duckie/Andie(?)/Blaine are good examples: no matter what choice is made, the person loses.
In Jack/Kate/Sawyer, Kate and Sawyer are natural matches; they're both con men, criminals, outsiders. But we don't want Kate and Sawyer to end up together, ,because that means Jack, a good guy, loses. We also want to think that Kate might go straight (I don't remember all the details of Lost, so forgive me if I misstate them), but if she does, then Sawyer loses out, and he seems like a likeable scoundrel. So no matter who she chooses, we're kind of bummed.
Take Andie and Duckie, then. (That's her name, right?) If she chooses Blaine we're all "Oh, yeah, sure the rich jerk of course gets the girl" but it feels more right because if she chooses Duckie she suddenly picks this guy she's always sort of ignored and obviously has no strong feelings for, and you know that's not going to work out, plus it seems like she's not growing as a person then.
So a good triangle, I think, presents two desirable choices, each of which requires that the person choosing lose something. In love triangles, you can never have your cake and eat it, too.
(Unlike in life, where having your cake means that you get to eat it. I never understood that saying.)
Alex ~ A Like Triangle? Hahahaha.
ReplyDeleteBriane P ~ Interesting thoughts. I heard that, too. I think Pretty In Pink was based on a book (but I am not certain of that) and in the book she chooses Duckie. However, you are right... audiences hated it, so they changed the ending. If they wrote it in such a way that I could understand her Thinking Shift with regard to Duckie, I might have found it believable. But, as you say, it is hard to see someone viewing a person a s friend their ENTIRE LIFE and then suddenly about facing on it. In some ways, I might have liked it better if she hadn't chosen Blaine either... because he was such a weak person. But that wouldn't make a great Rom Com. ::sigh::
Yes, I think you have it right about Kate, Sawyer, and Jack. I always felt like Jack was the better choice for her... in that he brought her best side. BUT, Sawyer was just so darn likable. It was easy to understand why she loved them both. Jack made her better, but Sawyer was more like her... and we tend to like people who we feel "get us." I am running around the tree here, but she could just be herself with Sawyer. With Jack, I think she felt pressured to be better. Sometimes that is good and sometimes it just feels like constant failure. In the end, she still loved them both.
Whenever you love two people and you make a choice, you lose something. And that is what makes it great. It also is what has people taking sides and buying shirts with Team Sawyer or Team Jack on them. And don't get me started on morph names. Skate. Jate.
I love that you're continuing the hop theme because you want to. Last May I did a Monster Madness hop that lasted 7 days, and I wish it'd been more. I'm not really a romance girl. The things that make me cry are when ET died and came back to life, or Bruce sacrificed himself at the end of Armageddon. I enjoy the 30-40s romances with Fred and Ginger though. I think that counts ... a little. ;)
ReplyDeleteMonster Madness. It is really funny that things that make our crazy hearts sing, isn't it? I like a good love scene and you like scary things that go bump in the night! Hahaha.
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