Happy ever after

WARNING Contains spoilers for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Romeo and Juliet and Casablanca.

               

As a romance addict, I love knowing that a happy ever after is guaranteed. I don't think anything matches the anticipation, when everything is going horribly wrong, of what will come to shake up the action, change the dynamic or break down barriers so that the hero and heroine can find a way to be together.

A couple of months ago I read an article in the Guardian that reminded me how awesome Buffy the Vampire Slayer was, and I’ve been steadily working my way through the box set ever since. It’s just as good as I remember. The writing is brilliant, the acting is superb, and the romances are intense. But one thing still upsets me – I just don’t understand why Buffy and Angel can’t make things work. Sure he’s more than two hundred years older than her, and a vampire, but ten years later I still think that maybe, maybe, they’ll realise that their love is more powerful than all the things keeping them apart.

I guess this eternal optimism is the reason I always half expect that Ilsa won’t get on the plane out of Casablanca, Juliet will wake up just in time to tell Romeo that she’s not really dead, and Angel Clare (how these Angels torment me) will accept Tess’s past.  

This has got me wondering… Which doomed fictional couple would you most like to see find their HEA, and how would you make it happen?  For me (current Buffy obsession aside) it has to be Tess and Angel – and the answer is so simple. No supernatural powers to be overcome, no warring families or Nazis. Angel just has to ignore what has happened to Tess in the past, or Tess could wait for him just a little longer. That’s all it would take! See, still so frustrated….

So how about you? What sad ending would you rewrite and how?

Ellie

xxx