#coraniaid

[allmythologies]

welsh mythology: coraniaid

coraniaid are characterized by a sense of hearing so acute that they can hear any word the wind touches, making action against them impossible.

[explosionshark]

"I need you to cover me" + Jackanda for the 'I need...' prompts?

oh this one was fun to write. post-me2

-

“I need you to cover me,” Miranda says, raising herself up and swaying lightly on her feet.

Even like this, winded, bleeding, she comes across like an insufferable bitch. Bossy and stuck-up, tossing out orders to Jack like she just expects them to be followed.

“Like hell,” Jack sneers at her, reaching up and grabbing Miranda’s wrist, trying to yank her back down to the floor. Despite her obvious injury, Miranda still barely stumbles, resisting Jack and managing to keep herself upright. She scowls down at Jack, feet stubbornly planted, and tries shaking off her grip.

Well, Jack knows how to hold the fuck on too. Changing tactics, Jack lurches to her feet, using her momentum to surprise Miranda, crowding her back against the wall. She leans in, smelling blood and sweat and the ozone-y scent of biotic energy seeping from Miranda’s body. 

Jack so rarely gets the upper hand like this, she wishes she were able to enjoy it better, what it feels like to have Miranda pinned, waiting. Her sharp, perfect jaw is clenched defiantly, eyes flashing with annoyance, but she doesn’t shove Jack away, not even when Jack leans even closer to growl down at her. “There’s certain rules for staying alive, Cheerleader, and one of them is this: no running across the battlefield with your guts pouring out. No fucking way are you going back out there. Sit.”

“It’s not that bad,” Miranda says through clenched teeth, glancing down between them and lifting her hand away from the wound in her abdomen. Christ, that’s a lot of blood, Jack thinks, feeling uncharacteristically woozy. She’s never been squeamish, has never been able to afford to be, but something about this being Miranda, after everything that’s gone down between them since they blew up the Collector Base is fucking with Jack’s head.

“Looks pretty fucking bad to me, Miranda,” Jack says, gently pushing Miranda’s hand further down and stepping back to look down at the wound.

“A flesh wound,” Miranda insists. “It takes a lot to put me down. You know I heal quickly. My g—”

“Your genetics,” Jack cuts her off, making her voice sharp and hard to hide the fear creeping up her spine. She rolls her eyes, “Unless daddy was able to figure out how to get your heart to keep pumping when you run out of blood, I don’t think slapping some medigel on it and rushing out to collect a bunch of new bullet holes is going to work out for either of us. If you had a death wish, you should have told me before you brought me all the way out here. Could have sorted that out for you in the hold.”

The threat is rather limp, even Jack will admit, compromised by the shake in her voice and the way she hasn’t let go of Miranda’s hand.

“I don’t want to die,” Miranda says, giving Jack a knowing look that says I am very graciously going to ignore everything else you just said because I’m too busy dumping gallons of blood onto your boots. “I don’t intend to die.”

“Not dying seems pretty at odds with your stupid fucking ‘cover me’ plan,” Jack snaps. “Sit your ass down and let me go—”

“No,” Miranda cuts her off, voice cold, clipped, hard. She steps into Jack’s space, their chests bumping together, and forces Jack back. Miranda’s hand on the back of Jack’s neck burns like a brand. “I’m not letting you put yourself at risk like that, Jack. This is my mission.”

“That I agreed to go on,” Jack snarls back at her. “You think I want you dying on me instead?”

“None of us will die,” Miranda says slowly, condescendingly like she’s talking to a particularly idiotic kid. Bright hot anger flares up in Jack’s gut, but before she can tell her off, Miranda barrels ahead, “None of us will die if you shut up and do as you're told.”

“Keep talking to me like that and I’ll fucking kill you before those assholes get a chance,” Jack glares.

Miranda rolls her eyes. Her thumb strokes a line down the side of Jack’s neck. “We’re wasting time. You need to cover me— no, shut up— your biotic barriers are stronger than mine, Jack. You’re the only one I can trust with this. If you cover me, I know nothing can touch me. I’ll be able to reach the console and shut down the station defenses manually if you can get me there.”

Part of Jack still wants to argue. It’s a stupid, reckless plan and if Miranda just shut up for a minute, Jack is sure she could think of something better. But still. You’re the only one I can trust with this. Fuck. Hell. Jack hates it, but that does something to her, sends a flutter through her stomach, a bloom of warmth in her chest like a stupid schoolgirl with a crush. 

“Can you do it, Jack?” Miranda’s voice is lower this time, softer. More sincere — not a command. A request. “Can you get me there?”

Fuck. 

Jack pulls away, missing the pressure of Miranda’s grip on the back of her neck when she steps out of reach. Fucking stupid. She’s such a mark. Knowing this doesn’t change anything.

Rolling her shoulders, casting one last queasy look at the blood still bubbling sluggishly from Miranda’s side, Jack nods.

“Sure, princess. I’ll get you there.” Jack means it to bite a little, spitting Miranda’s words back into her face. She thinks she surprises them both when it comes out the way it does. Like a promise.

[bodytoflame-ao3]

25 + Fuffy for the five sentence prompts?

“Hey, look at me,” Faith says, amused, and Buffy does.

And — “Okay, wow,” Buffy says, thoughts practically falling out of her mouth as she takes her in, hair curled and up — out of her face for once — barely even daring to consider the way she’s dressed for fear she won’t be able to stop.

“I clean up nice, huh?” Faith asks, almost like she doesn’t believe it — which is ridiculous, because here she is, in the slinkiest black velvet Buffy’s ever seen, looking like sex personified, and Buffy’s starting to worry she’s underdressed.

Faith pulls her in close, delicately by the thin satin straps of her dress, looking her over as she does — “Not that you don’t too,” — a crooked smile forming on her lips.

“Is that going to be a problem?” Buffy asks, wrapping her hands around her waist, holding in laughter as she hears Faith’s breath hitch; she’d almost forgotten what they’re here for: “You know, for the mission?”

five sentence prompts

[moistvonlipwig]

Unpopular opinion for the ask game: admittedly I would not describe myself as the world's biggest AtS fan, but even accounting for that I really don't understand why Fred is such a popular character.

I mean, Fred seems perfectly tolerable on an individual level. I wouldn't object to hanging out with her if she were a real person. But as a character, she just feels like yet another self-indulgent iteration of Whedon's recurring Cute Nerd Girl character archetype (like Kaylee on Firefly and at least arguably Willow in the first season and a half of BtVS before the writers figured out ow to make her interesting). I think Amy Acker is a very good actor -- I really like her as Root in Person of Interest -- but as Fred she just never seems to get anything remotely interesting to do.

The three big Fred story arcs I remember her being involved in are (1) a fake-out where it seems that her parents might be horrible people but -- surprise! -- they're actually really nice; (2) the world's most interminable love triangle (in which Fred's role is mainly to be a prize for Gunn and Wesley to fight over) that forms part of what the show itself will later, via Gunn, describe as a "turgid supernatural soap opera"; (3) randomly getting sick and dying so that the surviving cast (or, well, mostly Wesley) can feel sad about it and Amy Acker can finally have something different to do on the show.

What exactly am I missing? What makes Fred any more interesting than somebody like Oz (another inexplicably popular character with no obvious arc or complexity that I can see)?

strongly agree | agree | neutral | disagree | strongly disagree

I agree to an extent. I would certainly say Fred is a lot more interesting than Oz, although to be fair I think almost every character ever put on television is more interesting than Oz (whose only role on the show is to be Willow's eerily perfect boyfriend and to Tell Funny Joke).

There are kernels of an interesting character and arc for Fred in S2 and S4 of AtS, particularly in relation to her ruthlessness, anger, and capacity for violence. Her tasering Connor and torturing him in 4.01 "Deep Down" is a great character beat. 4.05 "Supersymmetry," where she wants to sent Professor Seidel to Pylea as he did to her, is a great Fred episode...right up until the end, when the writers inexplicably choose to have Gunn kill Seidel to 'preserve Fred's innocence,' a choice with some profoundly misogynistic and racist implications, and which will lead to one of the most tedious, annoying, and drawn-out breakups in television history. And while Fred gets mired in the love triangle bullshit for most of the middle of Season 4 (as does poor Gunn), she does get an excellent chance to shine in the Jasmine arc, which is probably the highlight of her run on the show. Her threatening Lorne ("I'll kill him, Charles!"), surviving on her own and killing the demon who tries to eat her, telling Jasmine "I loved you so much" before shooting her more times than necessary to wake up Angel -- all fantastic stuff. Unfortunately 4.20 "Sacrifice," the weakest episode in the arc, kind of puts her on the back-burner, but she still gets a great showing in the first two episodes of the arc, and it's believable that she would sign up for Wolfram & Hart in the S4 finale.

Although I think the love triangle was a blight on all three characters and especially Fred and Gunn, IMO the real killer of Fred's arc was S5. In S5 any character traits beyond Cute Nerd Girl get stripped away. The characters (and writers) start treating her like Cordelia, the heart of the group who everyone trusted and confided in, because, um, she's a woman, and Cordelia was a woman, so, you know, they're the same, I guess. She doesn't even get to stay a particle physicist, for fuck's sake -- they have her doing all kinds of random forensics and biology and technology stuff completely unrelated to her actual degree (or almost-degree? I guess she never technically completed her PhD). 5.15 "A Hole in the World" is enraging for so many reasons -- it's a speedrun of what was done to Cordelia in S4 only this time even more egregiously about the manpain of the men around the dying woman, Fred delivers a frankly insulting line about not being the "damsel in distress" when she so blatantly is, Fred is weirdly infantilized in relation to Wesley -- but frankly the part that gets my goat the most is that Fred should never have been excavating that coffin because Fred is not an archaeologist. She is a particle physicist. It drives me nuts that the show does not care about this basic fact of her character in S5. Also, she ran the lab! She should know better than to handle an ancient artifact without protective gear! Wesley tries to blabber later about her being "curious" or whatever, like she's a fucking child, but she's not a child, she's a 30-year-old woman who runs a lab and should know to wear a goddamn Hazmat suit, and she also should've delegated the task anyway because, again, excavating coffins is not her job.

And this lack of care towards her character is, I think, emblematic of the fact that Joss Whedon (and I do blame Joss for a lot of this, though possibly not the love triangle -- no clue whose idea that was) was simply not interested in Fred beyond the archetype she represented. It is, IMO, deeply telling that when Joss saw Amy Acker in the role of Lady Macbeth and realized she was, like, actually good at acting (lol), his immediate response was not, "Gosh, we better give Fred something cool to do on AtS," but rather, "Gosh, we better kill Fred off and give Amy Acker a better character." Which, hey, Jonathan Nolan has said he cast Amy Acker as Root specifically because of her performance as Illyria, so, I guess things work out the way they're supposed to -- but it says a lot about how little Fred was valued as a character that she was so easily cast aside.

So overall, I would say that I think she had the potential to be very interesting and there are times when that potential shines through. But it is true that for a lot of the show she's simply a cute traumatized nerdy waif girl a la Kaylee/River/early-seasons Willow (speaking of Willow, have I mentioned how much I loathe the scene in "Orpheus" where Willow condescendingly tells Fred she has a girlfriend after they've bonded over nerdy stuff?) who is often reduced to the object of men's affections or guilt or grief. I suspect that the reason she's so well-loved in fandom is simply because people like that archetype. Relatedly, it's only recently, in my own fandom experience, that more and more people have started to engage with Willow's flaws and later-seasons behavior, whether it leads them to love her even more or to bemoan her botched character arc or to declare her a bad friend; for a very long time, she was popular simply for being the cute nerdy girl cinnamon roll too good for this world, too pure (the damage that meme has done to the internet is unspeakable). I personally tend to find the archetype a bit grating, although certainly there are moments I found charming from both Fred and early Willow. (The worst example of this archetype in recent memory, IMO, is Willow [no relation] [except she's clearly based off BtVS Willow] from the aggressively middling kids' cartoon The Owl House, who even gets a horrible cutesy voice to go along with the personality.) But that's why I suspect Fred is so popular, despite the fact that the character as she exists is admittedly far less interesting than the character she could've been.

[restlesshush]

Cabin Pressure for the reverse unpopular opinion asks?

Ohhh this is such a kind one to give me thank you <3

Cabin Pressure is soooo joyous I really don’t know where to start. I started writing out an answer about how 1x06 Fitton is a crucial episode for cementing a solidly affectionate foundation for the crew’s dynamic going forward, but then I realised I was not doing a good job at making it comprehensible to you and therefore it was failing as Cabin Pressure evangelism.

Fitton is glorious, and very structurally important, but I suppose in terms of it reflecting the wider joyousness of cabin pressure, what’s important is that basically nothing is happening plot wise (they are just waiting for a guy named Goddard) and it’s still utterly wonderful. One of Cabin Pressure’s key strengths is in the way that just mundane interactions between the characters can be absolutely delightful, and Fitton is the first episode we get where this is the absolute core. Arthur’s everyday happiness speech has brought me out of a long term foul mood on multiple occasions (“you’re hardly ever – you know – blissfully happy with the love of your life in the moonlight; and when you are, you’re too busy worrying about it being over soon. Whereas the [stepping into a bath of the exact right temperature] moments – there’s loads of those!”), and that’s only one thing – it’s an episode completely packed with delightful nuggets.

I think this phenomenon of just purely the interactions between the characters, regardless of plot, being enough to sustain 30 enormously delightful minutes of radio (Ottery St Mary is also a shining example, where an episode structured largely around a car journey has launched fan art, a day in its honour, and me insisting on taking my friends on a pilgrimage to the titular location) is what gives cabin pressure such marvellous relisten value. The jokes only mature on repeated listenings, because they’re not based in some sort of surprise or twist that only works one time, but something very thoughtful and frequently deeply grounded in character that resonates more strongly the more familiar you are. Douglas going up and down in the lift practicing his speech in Cremona so that it ends precisely on the ding is even more delightful after twenty six episodes than it was after three, because yes absolutely that is something Douglas would do. He isn’t at all as effortlessly suave as he’d like you to believe, but he loves doing putting excessive meticulous care into appearing so, which I find an extremely charming character trait.

And Cabin Pressure is just full of all these delightful little details, which is why I just cannot recommend it highly enough. S1 imo doesn’t quite yet have the foundation of warmth it goes on to develop but Fitton absolutely clears that up, and just does so so beautifully and charmingly, while also being a really lovely example of the things that make the show so wonderful.

[isagrimorie]

Kathryn Janeway, 2+3+20 for the character ask meme?

for this ask game

2. Favorite canon thing about this character?

Janeway is a scientist. She was a Science Officer who ranked up to Captain.

Also, I love how when Janeway is furious the looser she gets, the way she struts, and swagger. And drapes on her Captain's chair, and each passing year, the more 'IDGAF' she gets.

First-year in the Delta Quadrant was all about diplomacy and trying to talk to people by season 7, when Chakotay claimed that he was following Janeway's example using diplomacy first I snorted.

Because at that point, Janeway's firmly in the IDGAF zone. She's gonna use diplomacy as a starting point but she's also carrying a big stick behind her back.

Lokirrim Captain: You're still required to submit to inspection.

Janeway: our sensors should also confirm that our weapons are ready to fire. We're both reasonable people. I suggest a compromise. Your vessel will escort us through Lokirrim territory. That way, you can keep an eye on us, make sure we don't reactivate our holodecks. The other alternative is... we destroy your ship.

Janeway Diplomacy is to Speak Softly and Carry a Big Saber so You can Rattle it, and then if they betray you or are actively hostile, stab them.

3. Least favorite canon thing about this character?

I don't know if I can think of any -- possibly it's her overconfidence in Unimatrix Zero but that's just not great writing and honestly, if they massaged it a little more, I could buy it. It was just clumsily done to get to that point.

Maybe it's her tendency to prioritize Humans over other species? I can't really blame her for wanting a Hologram boy toy, after several years she's allowed. Although, over the safety of her crew? No, I don't believe it.

But mostly even her flaws and prejudices are interesting.

Maybe the least favorite canon thing where Janeway chose not to pursue anything romantic in the show? Romancing and having different love interests are okay for male captains but not women captains. Kate Mulgrew was very protective of that, and I get it because it was the 90s, and people would perceive it differently.

Oh, another thing I dislike: The new beta canon thing-- how Janeway kept a hold of her ex-fiancee years after he broke up with her. And also, I'm not sure I like the whole Amelia Janeway of it all they added in the books.

20. Which other character is the ideal best friend for this character, the amount of screentime they share doesn't matter?

I do think it's still Tuvok. Especially whenever Tuvok passive-aggressively plays the 'I'm her Best Friend' game against Chakotay. And he's the only one keeping score.

Not an ideal best friend but I love the headcanon that Sisko and Janeway were either in the same class in the Academy or were in similar circles in the Academy.

[moistvonlipwig]

Top 5 Angel episodes?

It'd be hard for me to rank these against each other, so in chronological order:

2.02 "Are You Now or Have You Ever Been": A great episode for both Angel's character and for the themes of the show. I confess the scene with Judy and Angel at the end makes me tear up every time. I really like the title, too -- obviously it's a reference to the famous question of the McCarthy era where the episode is set, and to the general paranoia of the Hyperion's residents, but it also I think raises the question of who is Angel now, and how does that relate to who he has been, a question that I think is answered by his choice to forgive Judy instead of abandoning her the way he once did.

2.11 "Redefinition": A great character episode for the four mains. Cordelia, Wesley, and Gunn figuring out who they are without Angel is a great story, as is Angel setting Darla and Drusilla on fire.

3.13 "Waiting in the Wings": A really gorgeous episode. Maybe the show's best. The atmosphere, humor, tragedy, and case-of-the-week are all top-notch.

5.11 "Damage": Arguably the only Spike episode in AtS S5 with something meaningful to say. But it has a lot to say, and it manages to retroactively make me less mad about several things in BtVS S7 (which is a very impressive trick) by way of interrogating them and not letting them stand unquestioned.

5.22 "Not Fade Away": One of the best TV show finales of all time, and a great episode in its own right. Highlights include the final scene in the alley and Gunn's scene with ultimate Buffyverse MVP Anne Steele.

[moistvonlipwig]

BtVS for the favorite things ask game?

ok!!!

my favorite female character: Cordelia of course.....though if we're counting her more as an AtS character then it'd be poor beleaguered Anya, who has too much sense by far for the rest of the Scoobies to handle.

my favorite male character: Spoike my horrible little man who is faking his accent and cheats at kitten poker <3 he sucks sooo bad (affectionate) (also objectively true since he is a vampire)

my favorite book/season/etc: This one's tricky -- I think S5 probably takes it in the end, although I think the overall arc of S2 is very impressive and the highs are higher. But I prefer big sister Buffy to only child Buffy and the later seasons cast line-up to the early seasons cast line-up, and S2 has a lot of bad episodes, whereas S5's worst episodes are just kind of whatever. S3 is also very strong overall, but it doesn't emotionally grab me the way S2 and S5 do.

my favorite episode (if its a tv show): This one's even trickier! I think "Becoming" (especially its second part) is definitely in the running for its amazing character work for Buffy and the whole cast. "Lovers Walk" gets points for the sheer amount of fun it packs into its runtime. "Who Are You?" is another contender, largely due to SMG's absolute tour-de-force performance as Faith. "Restless" would be a contender if it weren't for the horrifically racist treatment of the First Slayer that infects the entire episode, which knocks it soundly off its otherwise well-earned pedestal. "The Gift" is very, very good as well. (I'm not as big on "The Body" as everyone else -- it's good, I just don't think it's one of the show's top episodes.) And I think "Dead Things" is probably the most challenging episode the show ever put forth, which I appreciate deeply. (I enjoy the songs in OMWF a lot, but as an episode I don't think it's super cohesive, so while it's up there for me, I don't think I can say it's the show's best.)

my favorite cast member: I honestly don't really tend to get super invested in actors, so, idk? I guess I'd say that, while she's nowhere near the show's strongest actor -- in fact I would argue she's one of those actors who is extremely good at playing one specific part and basically can't play anything else -- I nonetheless have a lot of respect for Eliza Dushku as a person, what with how she's spoken up about the sexual abuse, harassment, and mistreatment she's faced within the industry, and how she threw her full support behind the people speaking up about Joss Whedon despite having a positive experience with him herself.

my favorite ship: Most of my favorite Buffyverse ships are AtS ships, but my favorite BtVS ship is ultimately probably Buffy/Spike, despite, um, everything -- I think they have a lot of really fun interactions and I buy their friendship in early S6 and S7, and I appreciate that the show made some attempt (YMMV how successful it was) to deconstruct and problematize the enemies-to-lovers trope. That said, my ideal endgame for them is that they end up as friends, not lovers. And the way some people talk about that ship on here is......well. It's something innit. In terms of other ships I like: despite what I'm about to say about Giles below, I do like his interactions with Anya a lot and I feel like there were some romantic implications in "Grave" that weirdly never got picked up again in S7. I think a Giles/Anya romance would be a lot better than S7 trying to resurrect the shuffling corpse of Xander/Anya. ...Although, I'm also a "Willow should've killed Giles in Grave" truther, so, I'll also propose a Willow/Anya romance, because they had good chemistry in "Selfless" and it'd be funny.

a character I’d die defending: It used to be Dawn and Cordelia, but honestly the fandom has cooled off a lot when it comes to hating those characters, so, uh, I definitely still defend them ardently when needed, but they don't need it as much these days as they used to. Buffy still gets some very weird things said about her which I think she should be defended from, although I also think there's pockets of fandom that act like she has never done a single thing wrong in her life ever, which is a point of view I also don't subscribe to. Faith I think is in a weird position where she has done some legitimately awful things, which some of her more hardcore fans gloss over, but some people are strangely hellbent on making up things she didn't do to get mad at her for, which I can't abide. People are also deeply weird about Joyce, as you know, but, like, I'm not a Joyce Fan or anything, I don't even think she's a particularly amazing mother, I just think people seem entirely incapable of seeing things from her point of view and weirdly insistent that her relationship with Buffy was worse than it was. So, IDK. Most of the women, I guess. Except Willow. Sorry Willow, I'm sure some people are weird about you too, but the narrative is too nicies to you already.

a character I just can’t sympathize with: Yeah, it's Giles. He's the character who has gone down the most in my estimation over time, particularly as I've gotten older. S1 Giles is arguably sympathetic, with his fate somewhat paralleled to Buffy's, but as the show goes on, the character and worldbuilding develop to a point where it becomes pretty irrefutable that this is a guy who profits off of Buffy's suffering and could stop doing that at any time, who abandons her when she needs him most, and who then has the gall to act like he should have any say in the decisions she makes about her life afterwards. Additionally, the way he seems totally indifferent to Xander's home life and clear desire for a non-abusive father figure/masculine role model, and even more egregiously (given that it is literally his job to 'watch' her) the way he seems totally indifferent to Faith's lack of a home or family or any kind of support, is profoundly foul to me, and yet another thing that's made worse by the retcon that Giles is well-off and gets paid to do this. (The Faith stuff is even worse when you remember that Giles, too, has accidentally killed people, yet he makes no effort to try to reach out to her. Angel's attempt to reach out may have been bad, but at least it was an attempt.) I've read a lot of meta on here about how Giles was deeply affected by Jenny's death and how that made him feel like he had somehow doomed her by loving her, or even when Jenny isn't brought into it a lot of people will say that Giles thinks he is an awful person who makes people's lives worse and that's why he holds himself at such a distance, and like, that's a fine interpretation, but I don't actually see any evidence that that's true? To me that's in the realm of "Xander hates vampires because of Jesse" -- it's something that could psychologically make sense for a real person, and you could write about in a fanfic and have it be quite interesting, but I struggle to see any real basis for that idea in canon. And of course I should add that I think Giles should probably suck, for the show to work; if he's a good father figure the story doesn't really happen. But he sucks in such deeply baffling and unsympathetic ways to me that I just really don't like him anymore at this point, aside from the occasional Buffy-Giles emotional beat or snarky one-liner that makes me smile.

a character I grew to love: This one definitely goes to Buffy -- I think pre-Dawn Buffy is a well-done but ultimately fairly typical Campbell-style comic hero, whose character is largely elevated by SMG's iconic performance and by BtVS's strategy of using monster-of-the-week episodes to mirror Buffy's internal journey. I like her fine in the early seasons, but it's only really in S5 that she starts to grab my emotional attention, and it's in S6 that I truly love her -- S6 is a mess, but I think Buffy's arc in that season is utterly compelling and beautiful, and it gives me so much more affection and appreciation for her character. As for S7...well, let's just not speak of that, shall we.

my anti otp: With apologies as always to my Bangel followers & mutuals, I find Buffy/Angel to be not entirely uninteresting to think about (especially in S2, which is when I think the writers had the strongest sense of what they wanted to say with that relationship), but they are profoundly tedious to watch. Melodrama that is played straight is rarely appealing to me, and I can't for the life of me imagine them in an actual adult relationship -- what would they talk about? As Buffy herself admits, they were never actually friends, and so many of their conversations on the show just revolve around how they shouldn't and/or can't be together but they want to anyway. I also think, as the shows go on, they develop different values and their lives go in such different directions that I don't think they would work as a couple in the future, either. Both of them are better off, IMO, moving on and living separate lives.