From the hilarious to the heart wrenching, these couples have been through it all. Even though their relationships are fictitious, we can still learn from their mistakes and be inspired by their romance. Let’s take a look at the top 10 fictional couples from our favorite movies, books, and TV shows and assess some of the greatest love stories of our time.
Cinderella and Prince Charming from Cinderella
This classic rags-to-riches tale was probably the first love story you heard as a child. With a little help from her fairy godmother, Cinderella went to the ball and met her handsome prince. It was love at first sight for this royal couple and once the prince found the owner of the tiny glass slipper, they lived happily ever after.
Cinderella treated everyone (people as well as animals) with kindness. She faced each day with a positive attitude and a smile, bringing her some serious good karma in the form of a fairy godmother. At the ball, Cinderella was the only girl who didn’t throw herself at the prince, making her stand out from the crowd. It was her air of mystery and self-respect that ultimately helped her catch the prince’s eye. If there is a guy you’re interested in, don’t make yourself look desperate by throwing yourself at his feet, instead be confident in yourself and lure him in with your good manners and optimism. But Prince Charming can also teach us a thing or two about relationships. When he found out that his ladylove was a maid, he didn’t let this keep them apart. Instead, he accepted Cinderella for who she was. This fairytale teaches us that if you treat others kindly, good things will happen to you. (And anything can happen in a great pair of shoes!)
Ross and Rachel from Friends
The rocky romance between friends Ross Geller and Rachel Green captivated our hearts for 10 seasons on television. Both Ross and Rachel were unlucky in love in the past, as seen by Ross’s three failed marriages and Rachel’s runaway bride stint in the pilot episode. But several breakups and a baby later, Ross and Rachel confessed their love for one another and vowed to make it work.
As we know from the show’s title, this couple started off as friends. This gave their relationship a strong foundation from the beginning and helped them overcome numerous bumps along the way. Of course sexual chemistry is an important part of a healthy relationship, but Ross and Rachel taught us that friendship is at the core of any good love story.
Romeo and Juliet from Romeo and Juliet
Although reading Shakespeare in high school English class was a bit of a bummer, this tale of star-crossed lovers gave us a window into the dangers of young love. This couple became so obsessed with one another that they ended up dying over it. Yikes!
Love is a powerful emotion that can make us do some crazy things. When you’re in a relationship, it can be easy to get a bit carried away and want to spend every waking moment with your man, but it’s important to keep a level head and not abandon your friends and family. Just remember, guys may come and go, but friends are forever. If only Juliet had a Sassy Gay Friend to talk some sense into her! Seriously Juliet, “What, what, what are you doing?”
Jack and Rose from Titanic
After winning a third class ticket to the Titanic in a lucky game of poker, Jack Dawson found himself aboard the grandest ship in the world where he met first class passenger Rose DeWitt Bukater. Jack saved Rose from imminent death several times throughout the film while also teaching her how to live. Although their relationship reached a tragic ending, what Rose learned from Jack in just a few days impacted her for the rest of her life and changed her for the better.
Not all relationships will last a lifetime, but what we learn from the relationship can have a lasting effect. If we treat each relationship as a learning experience, it can give even the most failed relationships new meaning. Whether we learn what type of guys to avoid or how to live life to the fullest, as long as we take a lesson away from each relationship we will continue to grow and the time we spent with the other person was not wasted.
Jim and Pam from The Office
Season after season we watched the friendship between Jim Halpert and Pam Beesly, the only sane members of Dunder Mifflin, evolve into something more. When the pair decided to get married, they didn’t let their outrageous co-workers ruin their day. The couple secretly tied the knot in a private ceremony on a Niagara Falls boat before getting married in a church before their friends, family, and the Dunder Mifflin staff. They made their day all about them and didn’t let other people get in their way.
Let’s face it; it might seem like everyone from your mom to your hairdresser has an opinion about who you should date, but at the end of the day your relationship is about you as a couple, not you and everybody else. Take a page out of Jim and Pam’s book and just focus on each other because as long as you’re both happy, nobody else really matters.
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Baby and Johnny from Dirty Dancing
When Frances “Baby” Houseman goes on a family vacation to Kellerman’s, she soon finds herself attracted to the resort’s dance instructor Johnny Castle. Before long, Johnny was giving Baby private dance lessons so she could fill in as his dance partner and things started heating up between the two. When Johnny was wrongly accused of stealing, Baby tried to save his job by sharing his alibi and revealing that she was with him the entire night. Johnny was impressed by Baby’s willingness to sully her own name to clear his.
If Baby let her family’s attitude towards the club workers influence her, she never would have gotten to know Johnny. So instead of letting other people’s opinions cloud your judgment, listen to your heart and draw your own conclusions. When Baby selflessly defended Johnny, she showed him just how much she cared about him, thus making their relationship even stronger. This couple taught us the importance of standing up for the ones we love and that “nobody puts Baby in a corner.”
Sandy and Danny from Grease
When innocent Sandy Olsson met bad boy Danny Zuko on the beach the summer before their senior year in 1959, she thought they were a match made in heaven. But by some trick of fate, when the two both ended up at Rydell High in the fall, Sandy learned of Danny’s tough greaser side. By the end of the musical, Sandy traded in her good-girl garb for some leather pants and a perm and shocked Danny with her wild side. In a surprising twist, Danny hung up his leather jacket and swapped it for a letterman jacket.
Relationships are all about balance and learning from one another. As seen by their dramatic costume change at the end of the film, Sandy and Danny learned from each other’s positive traits to become better versions of themselves. Danny’s fun loving and freewheeling attitude started to rub off on Sandy while Danny picked up some of Sandy’s wholesome personality. Although we do not recommend changing yourself to impress a guy, you should try something new by sharing your interests with one another. Join him the next time he goes skateboarding and bring him along to your next art class. You’ll gain a new appreciation for his hobbies and you never know if you’ll find a hidden talent!
Zack and Kelly from Saved by the Bell
Zack Morris and Kelly Kapowski were the “it” couple of Bayside High and we must say, the class clown’s humorous pursuit of the “All American” cheerleader made for some captivating ‘90s television. When this couple split up before college, it seemed like this dynamic duo was done for good, but they ended up getting hitched in Vegas in the final episode of “The College Years.”
College relationships are much more serious than high school ones. Zack and Kelly’s time apart gave them the opportunity to date other people and find out exactly what they were looking for. You can even argue that breaking up actually brought them closer together in the long run. Don’t be afraid to spend some time apart before making a commitment so you can do some soul searching and figure out who you are and what you want.
Noah and Ally from The Notebook
In The Notebook an elderly man reads aloud from a notebook recounting the love story of Ally and Noah to a nursing home patient suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. In a tearjerker moment, Ally remembers that they are the couple from the story and becomes lucid for a few minutes. Just hearing their love story is enough to bring Ally back to him again.
Noah and Ally’s story reminds us that true love gets stronger with time. Money, looks, and other superficial things don’t matter in the end, because having each other is enough. We should all be so lucky as to find someone to grow old with who will love us until the end.
Carrie and Mr. Big from Sex and the City
We initially watched Sex and the City for Carrie’s fabulous wardrobe, but stayed tuned for her wonderful friends and steamy love life. Through Carrie and Mr. Big’s many ups and downs, we learned that not all love stories are like a fairytale. Even though we secretly knew all along that they’d end up together, there were a lot of arguments, tears, and heartbreak before they finally settled down in the end.
Carrie and Mr. Big taught us that relationships are messy and the ones we love are often better at getting under our skin than anyone else. Not all guys are worth the heartache, but once we find the person we’re meant to be with, it’s worth the fight.
Which fictional couple is your favorite? Let us know in the comments below!