History Main / TrueLoveIsBoring

* In the ''DoctorWho VirginNewAdventures'' novel ''Happy Endings'' BerniceSummerfield, as the title suggests, goes off to live HappilyEverAfter with her husband Jason. When it became apparent that Virgin weren't going to get the licence to continue making ''DoctorWho'' novels, ''Eternity Weeps'' splits them up, so that Benny will be single when she becomes the main character.

* Happened in ''{{CSI}}'' with Gil Grissom and Sarah Sidle - after several seasons of UST they finally got together, only for Sarah to eventually leave both Grissom, the department and Las Vegas and then for Grissom to go (she eventually returned without him).

This trope is often used to prevent or reverse ShippingBedDeath, and as justifcation for never resolving WillTheyOrWontThey. If it happens offscreen between sequels/episodes, it's a DowntimeDowngrade. If the characters ([[{{Shipping}} and their fans]]) are "lucky", the DivorceIsTemporary. If not, the next best thing is to hope to be AmicablyDivorced.

Related to VictoryIsBoring and FailureIsTheOnlyOption, which cover plot conflicts ''not'' associated with romance. DisposableWoman, DeadLittleSister, and DeathByOriginStory are cases where this is done preemptively, before the story proper even begins.

* Averted, hard, in ''{{Chuck}}''. After running a WillTheyOrWontThey for about 3 years, Chuck and Sarah finally get together, become a {{Badass}} BattleCouple they remained together with little to no jealousy or other relationship problems.

* In the season 1 finale of ''{{Rhoda}}'' she & Joe get married. This was one of the highest rated entertainment shows ever. But then they got divorced. Now it's considered to have been a bad idea to have them get married, purely from a business standpoint.

Huh, what's this? In the next season, it turns out that married life isn't what they thought it was. You mean he lost his job and became TheAlcoholic? [[YourCheatingHeart She started having an affair]] with the [[GoodAdulteryBadAdultery handsome postman?]] They drifted apart after that [[ConvenientMiscarriage disastrous (but convenient) miscarriage?]] She divorced him and remarried four years ago!?

* John [=McClane=] and Holly of ''Film/DieHard''. Through the first three films, their breakups are a RunningGag with the two coming closer together at the end of their devestating experience. However, this trope is played morosely straight in the fourth film, where they're finally divorced.

* John [=McClane=] and Holly of ''DieHard''. Through the first three films, their breakups are a RunningGag with the two coming closer together at the end of their devestating experience. However, this trope is played morosely straight in the fourth film, where they're finally divorced.

->''Audiences are only interested in the beginnings and endings of relationships, not all the tedious good times in the middle. [...] No one is living out that lustful, unstoppable, consistently passionate version of love endorsed by films because we have to live it for a lot longer than 90 minutes and that would be exhausting.''
-->'''''{{Cracked}}''''', [[http://www.cracked.com/blog/4-flawed-life-lessons-movies-accidentally-taught-us_p2/ "4 Flawed Life Lessons Movies Accidentally Taught Us"]]

* ''TotalDrama,'' definitely. The first season ended happily, which included six couples having formed. In season two, however: [[SassyBlackWoman Leshawna]] breaks up with [[{{Geek}} Harold]], and then becomes a DesignatedVillain so that he [[spoiler:helps vote her off]]. [[ChickMagnet Trent]] and [[PerkyGoth Gwen]] break up in an utterly ''bizarre'' case of DerailingLoveInterest (Trent suddenly develops an OCD obsession with the number nine...or something). [[SurferDude Geoff]] gets AcquiredSituationalNarcissism all season, straining his relationship with [[GranolaGirl Bridgette]]. [[WellExcuseMePrincess Courtney]] [[TookALevelInJerkass Takes A Level In]] VillainSue and begins [[AbuseIsOkayWhenItIsFemaleOnMale abusing]] [[TroubledButCute Duncan]]. Then, in season three, Bridgette cheats on Geoff (they reconcile), Duncan cheats on Courtney with Gwen (they break up), Izzy breaks up with Owen (for...some reason) and you This Troper comes to the conclusion the writers just don't know how to write a happy couple.

->"...as ChrisRock put it best, 'Good relationships are boring.' The problem is that good relationships are also almost always an inverted spectrum of the [[StarCrossedLovers rocky courtship]], [[HappilyMarried happy marriage process]] we see in movies. In fact, any list of reasons why people get divorced suggests that dating is too easy. The problem is not that good couples get screwed over by circumstances. [[LoveMakesYouStupid Love, like a cocaine addict, will find a way.]] The real problem is that couples pass through the dating process, arrive at the part where they're supposed to live HappilyEverAfter and find themselves blindsided by things like differences over money or the fact that one doesn't want kids and the other is a Mormon."

->'Audiences are only interested in the beginnings and endings of relationships, not all the tedious good times in the middle. [...] No one is living out that lustful, unstoppable, consistently passionate version of love endorsed by films because we have to live it for a lot longer than 90 minutes and that would be exhausting.''

* [[{{Nightwing}} Dick Grayson]] and [[{{Batgirl}} Barbara Gordon]]. ChuckDixon's entire run on ''{{Nightwing}}'' pretty much made them an OfficialCouple. The ShipSinking started during Devin Grayson's run and continued up to and beyond ''InfiniteCrisis''. Unlike most other examples, this actually had quite a bit of build up, and there were multiple reasons given for ending their relationship (Dick would constantly talk about "the good old days" making Barbara feel that he liked her better when she had her legs, Dick taking his own mobility for granted, and Dick becoming just as obsessed as Batman in his own way) until finally she decided that he wasn't ready for a relationship and broke off their engagement (though Barbara becomes angry when Dick suggests that he failed her, throwing those who like the two a bone) Dick Grayson wasn't supposed to survive ''InfiniteCrisis'', but since he did, they wanted him to be a swinging bachelor and free to do his solo thing.

** There is also the matter of The Hulk's other wives and love interest. Caiera, Jarrela,Kate Waynesboro, etc. Kate Waynesboro is the only one that hasn't died at least.

* John [=McClane=] and Holly of ''DieHard''. Through the first three films, their breakups are a RunningGag. Then, it's played morosely straight in the fourth film, where they're finally divorced.
* The reason Ripley was the only survivor at the beginning of the third movie in the {{Aliens}} series.

* In the season 1 finale of ''{{Rhoda}}'' she & Joe get married. This was one of the highest rated entertainment shows ever. But then they got divorced. Now it's considered to have been a bad idea to have them get married, pruely from a business standpoint.

* Zig-zagged in ''TheSimpsons''. Homer and Marge have been separated, dated other people, and even legally divorced at points in the series, but they're still together, mostly thanks to StatusQuoIsGod.
* Same with Lois and Peter Griffin in ''FamilyGuy''. Furthermore, Lois ''did'' remarry at one point when Peter was thought dead (to Brian) and cheat on Peter on a different occasion (with BillClinton--whom ''[[BiTheWay Peter]]'' [[CrossesTheLineTwice later slept with as well]]).

->''For any romantic movie that starts with a happy couple, it's almost guaranteed that they will be dating or married to other people by the credits. Audiences are only interested in the beginnings and endings of relationships, not all the tedious good times in the middle. [...] That sets a dangerous precedent for real-world relationships, though. No one is living out that lustful, unstoppable, consistently passionate version of love endorsed by films because we have to live it for a lot longer than 90 minutes and that would be exhausting.''

-->'''''{{Cracked}}''''', http://www.cracked.com/blog/4-flawed-life-lessons-movies-accidentally-taught-us_p2/ "4 Flawed Life Lessons Movies Accidentally Taught Us"

->"...as ChrisRock put it best, 'Good relationships are boring.' The problem is that good relationships are also almost always an inverted spectrum of the [[StarCrossedLovers rocky courtship]], [[HappilyMarried happy marriage process]] we see in movies. In fact, any list of reasons why people get divorced suggests that dating is too easy. The problem is not that good couples get screwed over by circumstances. [[LoveMakesYouStupid Love, like a cocaine addict, will find a way.]] The real problem is that couples pass through the dating process, arrive at the part where they're supposed to live HappilyEverAfter and find themselves blindsided by things like differences over money or the fact that one doesn't want kids and the other is a Mormon."
--> '''''{{Cracked}}''''', [[http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-things-that-are-way-easier-than-they-look-in-movies/ "5 Things That Are Way Easier Than They Look In Movies"]]

''For any romantic movie that starts with a happy couple, it's almost guaranteed that they will be dating or married to other people by the credits. Audiences are only interested in the beginnings and endings of relationships, not all the tedious good times in the middle. [...] That sets a dangerous precedent for real-world relationships, though. No one is living out that lustful, unstoppable, consistently passionate version of love endorsed by films because we have to live it for a lot longer than 90 minutes and that would be exhausting.''

* In ''TheDarkTower/WizardAndGlass'', when he tells the story of his first love, Roland says the name of the trope, explaining that "once the tale of encounter and discovery is told, kisses quickly grow stale and caresses tiresome" - except of course for the ones who take part in them.
* ''TheLordOfTheRings'': Frodo has destroyed the Ring, and Sauron is vanquished. Middle Earth is saved. Aragorn unites the fractured kingdom of Gondor, marries the love of his life, Arwen Evenstar, and they lived happily ever after...except they don't. Tolkein's appendixes go into the later lives of almost all the characters until their deaths, many of which are characterized by longing, loneliness, or continued conflict. Aragorn and Arwen's tale, however, stands out as particularly tragic. In the first place, Arwen's choice to love a mortal, Aragorn, forces her to be parted from her elven father, possibly for ''forever,'' since in Tolkein's universe the elves and mortals have separate afterlives. Their parting is made all the more bitter by the fact that they both know that Aragorn will eventually age and die, while Arwen can live forever. After decades of blissful life, Aragorn does eventually age and die, and Arwen, an immortal elf to whom death is something foreign, at last realizes why men struggle so desperately against it. "As wicked fools I scorned them, but I pity them at last." However, as a half-elf, she now has a choice. To abandon the Middle Earth and return to her people and live an immortal life, or to choose death herself, and be with Aragorn again. She chooses the latter, and eventually dies.

* The Lord of the Rings. Frodo has destroyed the Ring, and Sauron is vanquished. Middle Earth is saved. Aragorn unites the fractured kingdom of Gondor, marries the love of his life, Arwen Evenstar, and they lived happily ever after...except they don't. Tolkein's appendixes go into the later lives of almost all the characters until their deaths, many of which are characterized by longing, loneliness, or continued conflict. Aragorn and Arwen's tale, however, stands out as particularly tragic. In the first place, Arwen's choice to love a mortal, Aragorn, forces her to be parted from her elven father, possibly for ''forever,'' since in Tolkein's universe the elves and mortals have separate afterlives. Their parting is made all the more bitter by the fact that they both know that Aragorn will eventually age and die, while Arwen can live forever. After decades of blissful life, Aragorn does eventually age and die, and Arwen, an immortal elf to whom death is something foreign, at last realizes why men struggle so desperately against it. "As wicked fools I scorned them, but I pity them at last." However, as a half-elf, she now has a choice. To abandon the Middle Earth and return to her people and live an immortal life, or to choose death herself, and be with Aragorn again. She chooses the latter, and eventually dies.

** Also on Angel we have Angel and Buffy in true love for a single day. He decides to turn back time to avoid keeping her because he wants to keep fighting evil, adding on later "so I won't risk hurting you" to let Buffy down softly.

* ''{{Angel}}'' has Fred and Gunn as a couple. Jos then gives a nod to the shippers by letting Wes date Fred for all of a day before [[spoiler: killing Fred off and changing her into another character]] because the love thing was boring.

* Same with Lois and Peter Griffin in ''FamilyGuy''. Furthermore, Lois ''did'' remarry at one point when Peter was thought dead (to Brian) and cheat on Peter on a different occasion (with BillClinton--whom ''[[BiTheWay Peter]]'' [[CrossesTheLineTwice later slept with as well]]).

* [[{{Nightwing}} Dick Grayson]] and [[{{Batgirl}} Barbara Gordon]]. ChuckDixon's entire run on ''{{Nightwing}}'' pretty much made them an OfficialCouple. The ShipSinking started during Devin Grayson's run and continued up to and beyond ''InfiniteCrisis''. Specifically, Barbara called off her engagement with Dick for some pretty arbitrary reasons that were [[ExecutiveMeddling mandated by the editors]]. Dick Grayson wasn't supposed to survive ''InfiniteCrisis'', but since he did, they wanted him to be a swinging bachelor and free to do his solo thing.

->"...as ChrisRock put it best, 'Good relationships are boring.' The problem [with fiction] is that good relationships [in RealLife] are also almost always an inverted spectrum of the [[StarCrossedLovers rocky courtship]], [[HappilyMarried happy marriage process]] we see in movies. In fact, any list of reasons why people get divorced suggests that dating is too easy. The problem is not that good couples get screwed over by circumstances. [[LoveMakesYouStupid Love, like a cocaine addict, will find a way.]] The real problem is that couples pass through the dating process, arrive at the part where they're supposed to live HappilyEverAfter and find themselves blindsided by things like differences over money or the fact that one doesn't want kids and the other is a Mormon."

->"...as ChrisRock put it best, 'Good relationships are boring.' The problem [with fiction] is that good relationships [in RealLife] are also almost always an inverted spectrum of the [[StarCrossedLovers rocky courtship]], [[HappilyMarried happy marriage process]] we see in movies. In fact, any list of reasons why people get divorced suggests that dating is too easy. The problem is not that good couples get screwed over by circumstances. [[LoveMakesYoustupid Love, like a cocaine addict, will find a way.]] The real problem is that couples pass through the dating process, arrive at the part where they're supposed to live HappilyEverAfter and find themselves blindsided by things like differences over money or the fact that one doesn't want kids and the other is a Mormon."