Well love is in the air on Valentines Day and when I don't have a date at this time of the year I usually just watch any media with romance on it. Romance is some of my favorite genre and sub-genre because it's just a whole different experience and it hurts me to see a romance bad due to the fact that the love is forced, 1-Dimensional, and doesn't really have a purpose other than putting two couples together. To me, a great romance is when they have a whole different challenge and different kind of love; like passionate love, playful love, lust, or destiny. I know what is actually a good romantic story when I see one and here are some of my romances told in comic books, movies, television, video games, ect.
Viola de Lesseps & William Shakespeare - Shakespeare in Love
The story of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliette has been told almost a million times right now that in order to make it interesting again is to give us a whole new style of telling the story. This is a fictional tale of Shakespeare's struggle of making his stageplay on Romeo and Juliette and instead he found inspiration with a lovely beauty named Viola de Lesseps. Her part of the story is that she's force to marry soon to a rich slob and all she wanted to do was to act and this was the time when women are banned from doing such a thing. Not only Shakespeare fell in love with her, but he did the most forbidden thing in making her look like a boy portraying as an "actor" playing as Romeo. William Shakespeare desired nothing but to make this play successful but what makes his journey so interesting is that Viola is there with him all the way practicing, supporting, helping, and also making love behind closed doors.
If you think that's cliche or generic, then ask me this; What romantic couple has EVER quoted each other's work during sex? :o
If I ever met a woman who actually quoted my own work out of great passion, then there's no other way to say it but she is the one. If you haven't seen Shakespeare in Love, I still recommend it because it was the best movie of 1998 and it beat Saving Private Ryan on the Academy Awards for Best Picture in 1998 and deservedly so. That's why Shakespeare in Love is in my Top 10 Favorite Movies of all Time because it was so entertaining that it's worth watching again and again.
___________________________________________
Sonic & Sally - Sonic SatAM/Archie Comics
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you can call "furry" all you like, but these two cartoon characters are the reason why I got interested in the romantic genre in the first place, and we're talking about me watching Sonic SatAM back in the early 90's. I always thought it was interesting that two characters have fought together in a middle of war with Nature vs. Machine while at the same time holding the strength together. Now when you see the SatAm series, you can see it's a little light hearted and playful where Sonic annoys Sally and Sally get's aggravated when she's focused on being a team and carry out the battle. But things really started to sparkle when they finally beat Robotnick and had the power of love within each other.
It was worth the long wait towards the end of the 2nd season, but sadly, Sonic SatAM got cancelled due to low viewership ratings and how can the show survive when it's competing with the Power Rangers showing on Fox Kids at the time? Luckily, Archie Comics followed up the story that was left out from the unfinished series with...
This comic series really was better than the original show it was based on and still to this day it is the longest lived comic series let alone the most successful comic series Archie comics has ever published. Dramatically enough, Sonic grew a love triangle with various characters such as...
Amy (of course)
Bunnie Rabbot
Mina Mongoose (my second favorite Sonic love-interest)
Fiona Fox (Sonic was a bastard for taking Fiona away from Tails)
and believe it or not there's so much more to it. So why so much relationships on an adventure of Natured vs. Machine? What do you expect? it's Archie Comics, they've been very good in romantic triangles for decades that sold millions!
But one of the highlights of the comic series for me was (after so many years so Sonic and Sally together) when they broke up.
Boy, after those many years of being connected with the characters, it really broke my heart to see they've finally separated. It was so hard to see any of the Sonic the Hedgehog issues because it reminded me of my own heart break of my first girlfriend back in high school. I do admit that I get teary-eyed whenever I see the issue when they've finally broken up. Miraculously enough, even though they've broken up, other romances of the series developed as well. Like...
Bunnie Rabbot marrying Antoine (most shocking moment of the Sonic series ever)
Knuckles and Julie-Su
and much more. It was not until 2011 when Sonic and Sally got back together that made me the happiest person in the world to see that happen after those long years of separation. Hell, they even went back in time to when they actually first met in Sonic Genesis, something that we all never knew about
But after all those years of waiting to get them back together, it hurt me even more when Sally had to sacrifice her own self to save the world from Robotnik's planet destruction by roboticizing herself.
From here on out, I won't say any more about what's going on now with the Sonic series, but I'm telling you all that keeping up with the relationships and battles with almost every character in the Sonic The Hedgehog comic book series is actually my favorite adventures. Just learning how each character speak to each other and endure each other's battle was always a life-lesson to learn. It's a shame that none of the video games has ever made stories and characters this engaging which is why I always say that the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series is always better than any Sonic video game. You can tell whatever is the best Sonic the Hedgehog game and I'll still say it's not even as good as the Comic series. There's always a new challenge and a new shock factor that always makes this adventure more and more exciting. That's why Sonic the Hedgehog comics is still the longest lived comic book series and Archie's greatest success! And it's all thanks to the ingenious romance direction that kept making us buy another issue of Sonic. ;D
__________________________________________________
Tali'Zorah nar Rayya and Commander Sheppard
Back when I used to be the biggest Mass Effect fan, the selling point for me was choosing your character to be in a relationship with. But the one that was the best for me is the one that's the most passionate and had the most challenges to go through and that's Tali from Mass Effect 1, 2, & 3. Of course you could not choose Tali as your romance in the first one, but fans demanded more so Bioware put her available in the second. I chose Tali because of so many reasons.
- She was so mysterious behind the mask
- She was in so much pain
- She had the darkest story (for female character)
- She needed your help the most
- She's more passionate lover
- She has a lovely voice that soothes the ear
- She has so much to learn from you
- She desire nothing more than happiness
- She's sensitive
- She's strong when needed
- She's smart with technology
- She's adventurous
- She's kind and generous
- She has so much to learn
- When she speaks it's always the right words to me
Yes, the subject of inter-species relationship is awkward to discuss, but Bioware (used to be) smart enough to tell their audience that it's okay to be in such relationship like today it's okay to have blacks & whites romantically together. Though Mass Effect 3 was terrible, the best part was seeing Tali again, but they betrayed us by not showing her face unmasked [in her own planet with the oxygen she can breathe on] and only showed her real face on a photoshop frame...
How angry do you think I was so hyped to see where this was going only to backstab me to not show her unmasked, let alone the whole Quarian race. Never the less, just knowing Tali on the romantic side was so exciting (except the end) which is why there's a huge fanbase on Tali's character. Tali was the main reason why I became a Mass Effect fan because there is no other female character like her. Even non-Mass Effect fans know who she is which is why she's the backbone of the series.
______________________________________________
Belle and the Beast
Disney is no stranger to romance but there is no better love-birds than Belle and the Beast. What can I say that hasn't already been mentioned? Well, as a kid, I refused to watch the movie because the Beast was so damn terrifying, but now at a mature age, I can see it was all part of character development of changing the Beast within that gold heart of his. Belle spend a long time changing the Beast to the man she dreamed and no matter how desperate, impatient, or intimidating the Beast can get, she never held back and stood up to him that he's wrong. And let's not forget the dancing in the Ballroom scene that was simply breathtaking to watch. It's no wonder why it is the first animated movie to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture in 1991 and it was this close to win if only Silence of the Lambs (which is a better movie) was released in a different year. Beauty and the Beast was simply the highest point of the Disney Renaissance and still Disney sell the shit of the merchandising out of this film.
_________________________________________
Fry & Leela - Futurama
Though I find this as the strangest couple, but it is the most unique couple I've ever seen in fiction. I'm not putting Futurama in this list because it is my favorite show, but because it gets better to see these two characters on each episode. Right from the first episode you could tell that this was growing into a big relationship, yet as we watch all the episodes, it really got rocky as they get turned-on and off constantly and sometimes forgot about each other for another person they're now interested in. Nevertheless, just like us fans who desired Sonic and Sally back, we Fry & Leela fans were so desperate to have them together.
Here we got Leela who's a master of kung-fu, strong willed, very focused, prideful, leader of the Planet Express crew, smart, pilot of a ship, very picky, and is a one-eyed mutant cyclops that has a troublesome love-life.
Then we have Fry, who's very distracted, dim-witted, a slob, easily confused, and almost everything that's the total opposite from Leela. So what makes these two characters so great as a couple? Well for the seer fact that the pace of developing the relationship is so slow that whenever you see them together you can tell it's just another step to what is to come for each other. Believe me, the situations and adventures that they've been though was been so strange yet so funny. This is what made this romance so different from nearly all the rest of the romances I've experienced. I always like to see myself as Fry because he is that individual that has had to go through this challenge of winning Leela's heart and after so many years of keeping up with the show, it fully paid off with great deal of creativity. That's one of the main reasons why I'm still a fan of Futurama since I was 9 years old when the series first started. Futurama has been a big part of my life and seeing these two characters grow as I grew up just made me more connected with the show.
_____________________________________________
Craig Thompson & Raina - Blankets
This is just simply the best romantic story I've ever seen in my life. It's the one story that not only tells it so well but it speaks to you spiritually. Blankets was just simply beautiful by every sense of the word because of how Craig Thompson describes his real life story as a hurtful kid and finding Raina as his healing. I just simply felt connected with these two people (yes this is an autobiography after all) that it was once in a life time life-changing.
Who knew that a girl that became your lover could evolve a person who's pitiful, sensitive, hurtful, and cowardly into a brave, faithful, passionate, and kind person. Since this is a true story, it really hurts to see how they got separated, but phenomenally it was been reported that Craig and Raina has came back together after she read Blankets and found him.
Just seeing these two back together just make me cry. :'(
Blankets is one of my favorite things in this world and you have to see my review on it because it's actually my favorite review that I've ever made.
I always come back to Blankets whenever I have trouble with my love-life and learn what can I improve as a human being. That's how special Blankets is to me and I will always cherish the moment I read Blankets every time.
________________________________________________
Dodola and Zam - Habibi
I still to this day can't decide which is better Craig Thompson's Blankets or Craig Thompson's Habibi. Though both of them are in the romance genre, but they both are a different romantic story. This is probably the most complex love story I've ever seen because we're talking about two escaped slaves who did everything to survive and protect each other. Dodola at age 7 took Zam (as a baby) and raised him. It was strange to see if it's a brother-sister relationship or mother-son relationship, but as they got older, they started noticing each other as Zam is trying to resist his temptation to the one who sheltered and fed him while Dodola didn't want him to transform to the men that she hated.
You wouldn't believe what Dodola did to keep Zam safe and if I told you what she had to do, it would turn a lot of people off because of the very dark subject matter. Dodola and Zam believe in each other so very much that when they got caught and separated from the slave owners, the main thing to keep reading is to just see them comeback together. Never have I had the nervousness of just changing to the next page because it was so damn thrilling and yet so scary to see how much worse is it going to be for them not being together.
I cried so hard for these two characters to get back together because it's how much they truly love each other now as lovers. Each time I've turned another page of this wonderful graphic novel it's always getting worse for them as they struggle more and more to keep each other alive. This is truly the meaning of love; sacrifice, help, love, and will. If you want to really see great romance stories, Craig Thompson is the master of telling its audience such story. It's amazing this single man changed my life twice, that's something I don't see from any artist or storyteller. I soon will review Habibi when I get back to reviewing because there's a good reason why I put Habibi as the BEST graphic novel in the Legit Animation Awards 2012.
I love Habibi so much that I've now read it from beginning to end (over 500 pages) about 5 times and I'll keep getting inspired reading this graphic novel till the day I die and that's a promise; I will make to myself. I urge you to buy this graphic novel if you want something so wonderfully crafted as this!
______________________________________________
So that's my favorite romances ever. Tell me know what you think of my choices here and tell me what are your favorite romance couple, stories, and what not. I'm interested to see your pick and be sure to see the links I gave you here. Here's me saying...
