# You don't like the main character's love interest **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 19, 2011, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dont-like-the-main-characters-love-interest/586018 "2011-06-19T07:36:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dont-like-the-main-characters-love-interest/586018/1 "2011-06-19T07:36:10Z")
I’m currently reading the Reigning Cats and Dogs mystery series, and I don’t like the main character’s love interest very much. I’ve only read the first two so far, but from reading the book jackets of the later books, it’s fairly obvious that she ends up marrying the guy. So I guess there’s no reprieve (not like my dislike of Sookie Stackhouse’s temporary love interest) sigh. It feels like a tease because the MC has already met a nicer guy, but gone back to the too tightly wound boyfriend. I’m sure that I can’t be alone in realizing part way through a book series or a TV show that for some reason the writer(s) _intended_ for you to like the love interest…but it never gels for you. You’re left wondering “What is s/he supposed to see in this character??” So, what books/shows featured a long-term love interest (min of two books in a series/two seasons of a show) that left **you** cold? ---
**Author:** ![charmstr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/53a042/32.png) [@charmstr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/charmstr)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dont-like-the-main-characters-love-interest/586018/2 "2011-06-19T14:19:54Z")
I never liked Angel as a soulmate for Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I never liked Riley as a soulmate for Buffy either. (Spike and Buffy were a highly entertaining train wreck so that was okay.) ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dont-like-the-main-characters-love-interest/586018/3 "2011-06-19T14:23:17Z")
Rosie Perez in White Men Can’t Jump. Holy shit was she annoying, i couldn’t understand why anyone at all would put up with her. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dont-like-the-main-characters-love-interest/586018/4 "2011-06-19T14:26:23Z")
> [@charmstr](#): > > I never liked Angel as a soulmate for Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I never liked Riley as a soulmate for Buffy either. > > (Spike and Buffy were a highly entertaining train wreck so that was okay.) Yeah, I think Riley is going to be a strong contender in the thread. It’s a darn shame Riley didn’t get interesting until he was married to someone else. (Of course, that episode was written that way on purpose, but I really don’t think the writers intended Riley to be so dull at the start.) ---
**Author:** ![Maiira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Maiira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maiira)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dont-like-the-main-characters-love-interest/586018/5 "2011-06-19T14:44:06Z")
Jocelyn, William Thatcher’s love interest in _A Knight’s Tale_. I thought that Kate, the blacksmith, was more interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dont-like-the-main-characters-love-interest/586018/6 "2011-06-19T14:56:36Z")
**True Blood** - Bill Compton is a dreary, tired cliche of a character and played by the most wooden, uninteresting actor on the show. But actually, I’m not all that big of a Sookie fan either. (At least, once in a while, Anna Paquin can inject some life into this stupidly written character.) ---
**Author:** ![xoferew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/e9a140/32.png) [@xoferew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xoferew)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dont-like-the-main-characters-love-interest/586018/7 "2011-06-19T15:06:45Z")
There is no male-female pairing so perfect, fated, and well-developed that I can’t be annoyed by it and find ample justification for pairing up the male hero with his male buddy. I can pretty much willfully ignore anything the TV show/movie/book/video game throws at me. I like strong female characters but I can very rarely scrounge up any interest in their romantic pursuits. ---
**Author:** ![Cinnamon\_Imp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@Cinnamon\_Imp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cinnamon_Imp)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dont-like-the-main-characters-love-interest/586018/8 "2011-06-19T15:55:08Z")
Denna, in The Name of The Wind, and The Wise Man’s Fear by Pat Rothfuss. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dont-like-the-main-characters-love-interest/586018/9 "2011-06-19T15:57:25Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > Yeah, I think Riley is going to be a strong contender in the thread. It’s a darn shame Riley didn’t get interesting until he was married to someone else. (Of course, that episode was written that way on purpose, but I really don’t think the writers intended Riley to be so dull at the start.) Actually I suspect they did. On a level subconscious to her (but conscious to Whedon), Buffy was looking for someone a lot blander than Angel, and who could blame her? ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dont-like-the-main-characters-love-interest/586018/10 "2011-06-19T16:02:04Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Actually I suspect they did. On a level subconscious to her (but conscious to Whedon), Buffy was looking for someone a lot blander than Angel, and who could blame her? And yet, they made him a secret agent for a shadow government agency working to eliminate the monsters on a Hellhole. How is that planned dullness? He should have been awesomeness incarnate, once the reveal that he wasn’t the simple Iowa farmboy was revealed. I guess, to be more precise: they intended Riley to be bland for a couple of episodes, until we learned of The Initiative. Then they intended him to be a bad-ass, only it didn’t really work. Until much later, when he and wifeypoo come and out-awesome Buffster and Buffy gets all “why did I let him get away?” about it. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dont-like-the-main-characters-love-interest/586018/11 "2011-06-19T16:50:11Z")
Smallville Lois Lane - I love every other modern version of Lois, and even have a soft spot for the Silver Age lunatic Lois. But on Smallville, I hate her with a serious passion. I wanted Clark to end up with Chloe. Lana, on the other hand, I don’t terribly dislike. Not quite what the OP is asking for, I think, but related, and my mind’s on it, thanks to the above. I like Catwoman, Wonder Woman, Batman, and Superman, but I dislike every romantic pairing of those four that’s ever gotten into an official (if not canon) story - Selina and Bruce are the only ones who work at ALL, but nobody ever does anything with them when Selina’s on the right side of the law, and thus it can work - no, it’s always when she’s a crook, making them both look bad - she looks manipulative, he looks an idiot; Wonder Woman/Batman, I’ve never been able to figure out what the various writers who’ve played that card were thinking; Wonder Woman/Superman is based entirely on ‘hey, they’re the two most powerful heroes in the universe, one’s a man, one’s a woman, they should hook up!’ without any consideration of whether it actually made sense for the characters - which it doesn’t - and is frequently paired with both of them looking bad (see Dark Knight Strikes Again or All-Star Batman…Miller clearly doesn’t like either character). ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dont-like-the-main-characters-love-interest/586018/12 "2011-06-19T17:01:10Z")
In one of my favorite movies, _Gentleman’s Agreement_, Gregory Peck clearly belongs with Celeste Holm, and yet every single time I watch it, he ends up with the annoying Dorothy McGuire. I think it’s one of the only movies where even though I already know exactly what is going to happen, I keep hoping that _this time_ the ending will be different. [sub]Sorry, I missed the “minimum two seasons” requirement.[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dont-like-the-main-characters-love-interest/586018/13 "2011-06-19T18:40:23Z")
> [@hermette](#): > > Denna, in The Name of The Wind, and The Wise Man’s Fear by Pat Rothfuss. She’s the reason I’m not reading past the first book. I stopped watching _Dirty Sexy Money_ when it looked like married Peter Krause was going to act on his feelings for his ex (Natalie Zea). I don’t like her with Raylan in _Justified_ either. But mostly I don’t like adultery. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dont-like-the-main-characters-love-interest/586018/14 "2011-06-19T18:46:18Z")
Does anybody, anybody in the world, like Fiona on _Burn Notice_? She stinks up the show like a dead skunk. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dont-like-the-main-characters-love-interest/586018/15 "2011-06-19T18:57:43Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > Does anybody, anybody in the world, like Fiona on _Burn Notice_? She stinks up the show like a dead skunk. I absolutely adore Fiona as much as is possible given that she is a fictional character and I a Grinch-hearted bastard. I rather think Michael’s not good enough for her, though. ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dont-like-the-main-characters-love-interest/586018/16 "2011-06-19T19:16:11Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > (not like my dislike of Sookie Stackhouse’s temporary love interest) Which one? And really, are any of her love interests any worse than Sookie herself? ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dont-like-the-main-characters-love-interest/586018/17 "2011-06-19T19:22:20Z")
> [@Maiira](#): > > Jocelyn, William Thatcher’s love interest in _A Knight’s Tale_. I thought that Kate, the blacksmith, was more interesting. I’ve read this sentiment a lot. I don’t agree myself; Jocelyn won with, “Yes, William, with the pigs.” > [@Tengu](#): > > I like Catwoman, Wonder Woman, Batman, and Superman, but I dislike every romantic pairing of those four that’s ever gotten into an official (if not canon) story - Selina and Bruce are the only ones who work at ALL, but nobody ever does anything with them when Selina’s on the right side of the law, and thus it can work - no, it’s always when she’s a crook, making them both look bad - she looks manipulative, he looks an idiot; Wonder Woman/Batman, I’ve never been able to figure out what the various writers who’ve played that card were thinking; Wonder Woman/Superman is based entirely on ‘hey, they’re the two most powerful heroes in the universe, one’s a man, one’s a woman, they should hook up!’ without any consideration of whether it actually made sense for the characters - which it doesn’t - and is frequently paired with both of them looking bad (see Dark Knight Strikes Again or All-Star Batman…Miller clearly doesn’t like either character). I think Selina was gone straight & living with Bruce for a wee bit in the mid-1980’s, but yeah, editorial keeps messing it up. I mind Kal/Diana much less than Bruce/Diana, even though Kal looks so much like a male version of Di that they could pass for sibs. There are a lot of Wonder Woman fans who liked Steve Trevor better dead, or retconned out completely. I guess that’s my contribution. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dont-like-the-main-characters-love-interest/586018/18 "2011-06-19T19:28:40Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > I absolutely adore Fiona as much as is possible given that she is a fictional character and I a Grinch-hearted bastard. I rather think Michael’s not good enough for her, though. Seriously? You like the Cryptkeeper? Sorry, I think I need to find another evil overlord. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dont-like-the-main-characters-love-interest/586018/19 "2011-06-19T19:34:29Z")
I never understood why Spenser put up with the whiny, irritating Susan Silverman for 5 minutes, let alone for decades. I think Robert B. Parker based Susan on his own wife, and MAYBE the real Mrs. Parker was a wonderful woman. But I can’t imagine how any man could love the lady in the Spenser novels. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dont-like-the-main-characters-love-interest/586018/20 "2011-06-19T19:35:21Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > Seriously? You like the Cryptkeeper? Sorry, I think I need to find another evil overlord. 1. I have abandoned all plans to conquer the Earth. Seriously, the paperwork is nightmarish and people are always trying to assassinate you and it always works out that the hero is your best friend from kindergarten and, yes, you’re _supposed_ to not care but in fact that’s much harder than it looks. I’m strictly the mischief type. 2. Notwithstanding the above, the Rhymerian moral inversion remains in effect. Fiona is catty, short-tempered, callous, petty, and frequently murderous. Plus she has great wheels. What’s not to lack. 3. The above should not be construed to imply that Ms. Anwar should not not be offered a piece of chocolate-chocolate cake once a week till she returns to a healthier mass. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dont-like-the-main-characters-love-interest/586018.md?page=2)